A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN 
LITERATURE 


BY 
PERGY  H.  BOYNTON 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 

AUTHOR  OF  "PRINCIPLES  OF  COMPOSITION,"  "LONDON  IN  ENGLISH 
LITERATURE,"  EDITOR  OF  "AMERICAN  POETRY" 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 
ATLANTA  •  DALLAS  -  COLUMBUS  •  SAN  FRANCISCO 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BY  PERCY  H.  BOYNTON 

ENTERED   AT  STATIONERS'  HALL 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


419.11 


fltftengum 


G1NN  AND  COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS  •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

The  general  purpose  in  the  preparation  of  this  book  has 
been  to  eliminate  negligible  detail  and  to  subordinate  or  omit 
authors  of  minor  importance  in  order  to  stress  the  men  and 
the  movements  that  are  most  significant  in  American  intel 
lectual  history.  The  book  has  therefore  been  written  with  a 
view  to  showing  the  drift  of  American  thought  as  illustrated 
by  major  writers  or  groups  and  as  revealed  by  a  careful  study 
of  one  or  two  cardinal  works  by  each.  In  this  sequence  of 
thought  the  growth  of  American  self-consciousness  and  the 
changing  ideals  of  American  patriotism  have  been  kept  in 
mind  throughout.  The  attempt  is  made  to  induce  study  of 
representative  classics  and  extensive  reading  of  the  American 
literature  which  illuminates  the  past  of  the  country — chiefly, 
of  course,  in  reminiscent  fiction,  drama,  and  poetry. 

As  an  aid  to  the  student,  there  are  appended  to  each  chapter 
(except  the  last  three)  topics  and  problems  for  study,  and  book 
lists  which  summarize  the  output  of  each  man,  indicate  available 
editions,  and  point  to  the  critical  material  which  may  be  used 
as  a  supplement,  but  not  as  a  substitute,  for  first-hand  study. 
This  critical  material  has  been  selected  with  a  view,  also,  to 
suggesting  books  which  might  leasonably  be  included  in  libra 
ries  of  normal  schools  and  colleges,  as  well  as  in  universities. 

As  further  aids  to  the  student,  there  have  been  included 
two  maps,  three  chronological  charts,  and,  in  an  appendix,  a 
brief  characterization  of  the  American  periodicals  which  have 
been  most  significant  in  stimulating  American  authorship  by 
providing  a  market  for  fiction,  poetry,  and  the  essay. 

In  the  writing  of  the  book  the  author's  chief  obligation 
has  naturally  been  to  the  many  university  classes  who  have 


A     4       1   /"»  f\  .'\ 


iv  A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

stimulated  its  preparation,  not  only  by  their  attention  but  by  their 
free  discussion.  Special  acknowledgment  is  gratefully  made 
to  Mr.  William  W.  Ellsworth  for  a  careful  reading  of  all  the 
manuscript  and  to  Miss  Marie  Gulbransen  for  the  initial  work 
in  formulating  the  appendix  on  the  American  magazines. 

Acknowledgment  is  due  to  the  publishers  of  The  Nation 
and  The  New  Republic  for  portions  of  the  chapters  on 
Crevecceur,  the  Poetry  of  the  Revolution,  Emerson,  Lowell, 
Whitman,  Sill,  and  Miller,  which  originally  appeared  in  these 
weeklies. 

PERCY  H.   BOYNTON 


.^^^  toK 


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CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY    i 

II.  THE  EARLIEST  VERSE 17 

III.  THE  TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     .     .  27 

IV.  JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  ...  41 
V.  CREVECCEUR,  THE  "AMERICAN  FARMER" 59 

VI.  THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  AND  PHILIP  FRENEAU     69 

VII.  THE  EARLY  DRAMA 89 

VIII.  CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN 100 

IX.  IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL      ....  no 

X.  JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER 141 

XI.  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT 158 

XII.  EDGAR  ALLAN  POE 173 

XIII.  THE  TRANSCENDENTALISTS 190 

XIV.  RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON 199 

XV.  HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU 221 

JCVI.  NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE      •. 236 

XVII.  JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER 252 

XVIII.  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW 267 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL .     .  282 

XX.  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE 299 

XXI.  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES 310 

XXII.  SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS 324 

XXIII.  THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH 343 

XXIV.  WALT  WHITMAN 362 

XXV.  THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN 380 

XXVI.  THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER 396 

XXVII.  THE  RISE  OF  FICTION;  WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS  .     .411 

XXVIII.  CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA 437 

XXIX.  THE  LATER  POETRY 453 

INDEX  TO  LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS  487 

INDEX 503 


A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN 
LITERATURE 

THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 

In  its  beginnings  American  literature  differs  from  the  litera 
tures  of  most  other  great  nations ;  it  was  a  transplanted  thing. 
It  sprang  in  a  way  like  Minerva,  full-armed  from  the  head  of 
Jove,  —  Jove  in  this  case  being  England,  and  the  armor  being 
the  heritage  which  the  average  American  colonist  had  secured 
in  England  before  he  crossed  the  Atlantic.  In  contrast,  Greek, 
Roman,  French,  German,  English,  and  the  other  less  familiar 
literatures  can  all  be  more  or  less  successfully  traced  back  to 
primitive  conditions.  Their  early  life  was  interwoven  with  the 
growth  of  the  language  and  the  progress  of  a  rude  civilization, 
and  their  earliest  products  which  have  come  down  to  us  were 
not  results  of  authorship  as  we  know  it  to-day.  They  were 
either  folk  poetry,  composed  perhaps  and  certainly  enjoyed  1^ 
the  people  in  groups  and  accompanied  by  group  singing  and 
dancing,  —  like  the  psalms  and  the  simpler  ballads,  —  or  they 
were  the  record  of  folk  tradition,  slowly  and  variously  developed 
through  generations  and  finally  collected  into  a  continuous 
story  like  the  Iliad,  the  ^Eneid,  the  "  Song  of  Roland," 
the  "  Nibelungenlied,"  and  "  Beowulf."  They  were  composed 
by  word  of  mouth  and  not  reduced  to  writing  for  years  or 


2:   .  :  .:A-:K-ISrPGRy  .QF*  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

generations,  and  they  were  not  put  into  print  until  centuries 
after  they  were  current  in  speech  or  transcribed  by  monks 
and  scholars. 

The  one  great  story-poem  of  this  sort  in  American  literature 
is  the  "  Song  of  Hiawatha,"  but  this  is  the  story  of  a  con 
quered  and  vanishing  race ;  it  has  nothing  basic  to  do  with  the 
Americans  of  to-day ;  it  is  far  less  related  to  them  than  the 
earlier  epics  of  the  older  European  nations  to  whom  we  trace 
our  ancestry.  Except  for  a  few  place-names  even  the  language 
of  America  owes  nothing  to  that  of  the  Indians,  for  the  Eng 
lish  tongue  is  a  compound  of  Greek  and  Latin  and  French 
and  German.  Our  literary  beginnings,  then,  go  back  to  two 
groups  of  educated  English  colonists,  or  immigrants,  and  our 
knowledge  of  them  to  conditions  in  the  divided  England  from 
which  they  first  came  to  Jamestown,  Virginia,  in  1607  and  to 
Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  in  1620. 

The  English  of  the  early  seventeenth  century  were  an  eager, 
restless,  driving  people.  The  splendid  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
was  just  past.  The  country  was  secure  from  foreign  enemies 
and  confident  in  its  strength.  Great  naval  leaders  had  brought 
new  honors  to  her  name ;  great  explorers  had  planted  her  flag 
on  mysterious  and  new-discovered  coasts ;  a  group  of  dramatists 
had  made  the  theater  as  popular  as  the  moving-picture  house 
of  to-day ;  a  great  architect  was  adorning  London  with  his 
churches ;  poets  and  novelists,  preachers  and  statesmen,  scien 
tists  and  scholars,  were  all  working  vividly  and  keenly.  There 
was  an  active  enthusiasm  for  the  day's  doings,  a  kind  of  living 
assent  to  Hamlet's  commentary,  on  "  this  goodly  frame,  the 
earth,  .  .  .  this  most  excellent  canopy,  the  air,  .  .  .  this  brave 
o'erhanging  firmament,  this  majestical  roof  fretted  with  golden 
fire  "  ;  and  to  the  exclamation  that  follows  :  "  What  a  piece  of 
work  is  a  man !  how  noble  in  reason !  how  infinite  in  faculty !  in 
form  and  moving,  how  express  and  admirable  !  in  action,  how 
like  an  angel !  in  apprehension,  how  like  a  god  !  the  beauty  of 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  3 

the  world!  the  paragon  of  animals  !  "  And  under  a  strong  and 
tactful  monarch  the  nation  had  been  kept  at  peace  with  itself. 

Yet  in  this  fallow  soil  the  seeds  of  controversy  had  been 
steadily  taking  root ;  and  when  Elizabeth  was  followed  on  the 
throne  by  the  vain  and  unregal  James  I,  the  crop  turned  out 
to  be  a  harvest  of  dragons'  teeth.  Puritan  democrats  and  cava 
lier  Royalists  fought  with  each  other  over  the  body  of  England 
till  it  was  prostrate  and  helpless.  What  followed  was  the  rise 
of  Puritan  power,  culminating  with  the  execution  of  Charles  II 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth  under  the  Crom- 
wells  from  1649  to  1660,  and  the  peaceful  restoration  of  mon 
archy  at  the  latter  date.  Itj^vas  during  the  mid-stages  of  these 
developments  that  the  first  settlements  were  made  in  English 
America.  Both  factions  included  large  numbers  of  vigorous 
individuals  of  the  pioneer  type.  The  Puritans  were  technically 
called  "dissenters"  and  "  nonconformists "  because  of  their 
attitude  toward  the  established  Church  of  England ;  but  the 
Royalists  who  came  over  to  America  were  simply  non 
conformists  of  another  type  who  preferred  doing  things  out 
on  the  frontier  to  living  conventional  lives  at  home. 

The  Royalists,  who  settled  in  the  South,  came  away,  like 
other  travelers  and  explorers  of  their  day,  to  settle  new  English 
territory  as  a  landed  aristocracy.  They  were  a  mixed  lot,  but 
on  the  whole  they  were  not  an  irreligious  lot.  They  believed 
in  the  established  church  as  they  did  in  the  established  govern 
ment,  and  they  persecuted  with  a  good  will  those  who  tried 
to  follow  other  forms  of  worship  than  their  own.  They  were, 
however,  chiefly  fortune  hunters,  just  as  were  the  men  who 
surged  out  to  California  in  1849  or  those  who  went  to  Alaska 
fifty  years  later ;  they  hoped  to  make  their  money  in  the  west 
and  to  spend  it  back  in  the  east,  and  they  had  little  thought 
of  literature,  either  as  a  thing  to  enjoy  or  as  a  thing  to  create. 
When  they  wrote  they  did  so  to  give  information  about  the 
country,  the  Indians,  and  the  new  conditions  of  living,  or  to  keep 
in  touch  with  relatives,  legal  authorities,  or  sources  of  money 


4  A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

supply  ;  and  always  they  had  in  mind  the  thought  of  attracting 
new  settlers,  for  they  needed  labor  more  than  anything  else. 
They  made  no  attempt  at  general  education,  adopting  the  now- 
abandoned  aristocratic  theory  that  too  much  knowledge  would 
be  a  dangerous  source  of  discontent  among  the  working  people. 
Some  few  individuals  wrote  accounts  and  descriptions  that  are 
interesting  to  the  modern  reader,  but  these  were  not  representa 
tive  of  the  people  as  a  whole.  They  were  Englishmen  away 
from  home,  living  temporarily  in  Virginia,  (the  province  of  the 
virgin  queen,  Elizabeth),  in  James-town,  in  the  Carolinas 
(from  the  Latin  for  Charles),  in  Mary-land,  and,  even  as  late 
as  1722,  in  George-idi. 

The  nonconformists  whom  adverse  winds  drove  to  the  North 
•in  1620  were  a  very  different  folk.  They  were  predominantly 
Puritan  in  prejudice  and  in  upbringing.  Many  of  their  leaders 
were  graduates  of  Cambridge  University  who  had  gone  into 
the  Church  of  England,  only  to  be  driven  out  of  it  because 
of  their  unorthodox  preaching  —  born  leaders  who  were  brave 
enough  to  risk  comfort  and  safety  for  conscience'  sake.  They 
came  over  to  America  in  order,  as  Mrs.  Hemans  put  it,  to  have 
"  freedom  to  worship  God,"  but  not  to  give  this  freedom  to 
others.  They  had  endured  so  much  for  their  religious  faith 
that  they  wanted  a  place  where  this,  and  this  only,  should  be 
tolerated.  So  they  became,  not  illogically,  the  fiercest  kind  of 
persecutors,  practicing  with  a  vengeance  the  lessons  in  oppres 
sion  that  they  had  learned  in  England  at  the  cost  of  blood 
and  suffering.  They  settled  in  compact  towns  where  they 
could  believe  and  worship  together ;  they  put  up  "  meeting 
houses  "  where  they  could  listen  to  the  preacher  on  the  Lord's 
Day  and  where  they  could  transact  public  business,  with  the 
same  man  as  "  moderator,"  on  week  days.  He  was  the  con 
trolling  power  —  "pastor,"  or  shepherd,  and  "  dominie,"  or 
master,  of  the  community.  And  when  the  meetinghouses 
were  finished,  the  settlers  erected  as  their  next  public  buildings 
the  schoolhouses,  where  the  children  might  learn  to  read  the 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  5 

Scriptures  so  that  they  could  "foil  the  ould  deluder,  Satan." 
Education  became  compulsory  as  well  as  public.  The  Puritans' 
place-names  were  Indian — Massachusetts  and  Agawam ;  derived 
from  England  of  Puritan  associations,  like  Boston,  Plymouth, 
and  Falmouth ;  or  quaintly  Scriptural,  like  Marthas  Vineyard, 
Providence,  and  Salem.  These  people,  unlike  the  settlers  in 
the  South,  came  over  to  live  and  die  here.  They  wrote  for  the 
same  social  and  business  reasons  that  the  Virginians  did,  but 
they  also  wrote  much  about  their  religion,  compiled  the  "  Bay 
Psalm  Book,"  published  sermons,  and  recorded  their  struggles, 
which  began  very  early  and  were  doomed  to  final  failure,  to 
keep  their  New  England  free  from  "divers  religions."  At  first 
their  writings  were  sent  to  England  for  publication,  but  before 
long,  in  1638,  they  had  their  own  printing  press,  and  the" 
things  that  were  printed  on  it  were  not  so  much  the  sayings 
of  individual  men  as  the  opinions  of  the  community. 

The  history  of  the  migrations  to  the  North  and  to  the  South 
during  the  seventeenth  century  is  one  with  the  history  of  the 
civil  struggle  in  England.  Up  to  1640  colonization  was  slow 
and  consistent  at  both  points.  From  1640  to  1660  it  increased 
rapidly  in  the  South  and  declined  in  the  North,  for  in  those 
years  the  grip  of  the  Puritans  on  the  old  country  relieved  them 
from  persecution  there  and  from  the  consequent  need  to  avoid 
it  and,  at  the  same  time,  made  many  Royalists  glad  of  a  chance 
to  escape  to  some  more  peaceful  spot.  From  1660  on,  with 
the  return  of  the  Royalists  to  power  in  England,  Puritan 
migration  was  once  more  started  to  the  North,  and  the  home 
country  was  again  secure  for  the  followers  of  the  king.  But 
the  real  characters  of  the  two  districts  were  unchanged. 
They  were  firmly  established  in  the  earliest  years,  and  they 
have  persisted  during  the  intervening  centuries  clear  up  to 
the  present  time.  The  America  of  to-day  is  a  compound 
whose  basic  native  qualities  are  inherited  from  the  oldest  tradi 
tions  of  aristocratic  Virginia  and  the  oldest  traits  of  democratic 
and  Puritan  Massachusetts. 


6  A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

In  dealing  with  the  early  periods  of  any  literature  the 
exercise  of  artistic  judgment  is  always  very  charitable.  Rough, 
uncouth,  fragmentary  pieces  are  taken  into  account  because 
they  serve  as  a  bridge  to  the  remoter  past.  Harsh  critics 
of  colonial  American  literature  seem  to  forget  this  practice 
when  they  rule  out  of  court  everything  produced  in  this  coun 
try  before  the  days  of  Irving  and  Cooper.  A  great  deal  of  the 
earlier  writing  should,  of  course,  be  considered  only  as  source 
material  for  the  historian ;  but  some  of  it  has  the  same  claim 
to  attention  as  the  old  chronicles,  plays,  and  ballads  in  English 
literary  history.  It  deserves  study  if  it  portrays  or  criticizes  or 
even  unconsciously  reflects  the  life  and  thought  of  the  times, 
and  it  is  significant  as  an  American  product  if  in  form 
or  content  or  point  of  view  it  clearly  belongs  to  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic. 

The  nature  of  settlement  and  the  neglect  of  popular  education 
led  to  an  early  lapse  in  authorship  in  the  Southern  colonies,  so 
that  in  a  survey  as  brief  as  this  chapter  their  writers  do  not 
come  into  view  until  they  find  expression  in  the  oratory  and 
statesmanship  of  the  Revolutionary  period.  Their  narratives 
and  descriptions  of  colonial  life,  as  long  as  they  wrote  them 
at  all,  were  quite  like  most  of  the  earliest  Northern  writings 
of  the  sort.  The  one  outstanding  difference  is  that  in  what 
ever  they  wrote,  the  religious  motive  for  settlement  and  the 
belief  in  a  personal  Providence  were  less  insistently  recorded 
than  by  the  Puritans.  Thus  where  John  Smith  was  content 
with  the  general  phrase  "  it  pleased  God,"  Anthony  Thacher, 
saved  from  shipwreck  in  Boston  Harbor,  wrote  devoutly,  "  the 
Lord  directed  my  toes  into  a  crevice  in  the  rock  "  ;  and  where 
Smith's  companions  hoped  for  the  benevolent  favor  of  the  Most 
High,  Thacher's  fellow-worshipers  were  perfectly  certain  that 
every  step  they  took  was  ordained  by  God,  so  that  even  their 
apparent  misfortunes  were  His  punishments  for  misconduct. 

In  all  the  great  mass  of  Puritan  writing  in  the  first  century 
of  residence  in  America  one  definite  current  appears,  and  that 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  7 

is  the  quiet  but  irresistible  current  of  change  in  human  thought. 
The  Puritans  had  made  the  profound  but  constantly  repeated 
mistake  of  assuming  that  after  thousands  of  years  of  groping 
by  mankind,  they  had  at  last  discovered  the  "  ultimate  truth  "  ; 
that  for  the  rest  of  time  men  need  do  nothing  but  follow  the 
precepts  which  God  had  revealed  to  them  about  life  here  and 
life  hereafter.  They  were,  in  their  own  serious  way,  happy  in 
their  confident  possession  of  truth  and  sternly  resolved  to 
bestow  it  or,  if  necessary,  impose  it  on  all  whom  they  could 
control.  Their  failure  was  recorded  with  their  earliest  attempts, 
and  it  came,  not  because  of  their  particular  weakness  or  the 
strength  of  their  particular  adversaries,  but  because  they  were 
trying  to  obstruct  the  progress  of  human  thought,  which  is  as 
inexorable  as  any  other  force  of  nature.  They  might  as  well 
have  entered  into  an  argument  with  gravitation  or  the  tides. 
The  most  interesting  and  the  best-written  pieces  of  seventeenth- 
century  New  England  literature  all  give  evidence  of  this  rear 
guard  action  against  the  advancing  forces  of  truth. 

The  Puritanism  against  which  this  rising  tide  of  dissent 
developed  was  admirably  embodied  in  William  Bradford  (1590- 
1657),  the  Mayflower  Pilgrim  who  was  more  than  thirty  times 
governor  of  his  colony  and  the  author  of  "A  History  of 
Plimouth  Plantation."  He  was  a  brave,  sober,  devout  leader 
with  an  abiding  sense  of  the  holy  cause  in  which  he  was 
enlisted.  His  journal  of  the  first  year  in  America  and  his 
history  are  clearly  and  sometimes  finely  written,  and  give 
ample  proof  of  his  stalwart  character  — "  fervent  in  spirit, 
serving  the  Lord,"  and  free  from  the  personal  narrowness 
which  is  often  mistakenly  ascribed  to  all  Puritans.  In  his 
account,  for  example,  of  the  reasons  for  the  Pilgrims'  removal 
from  Leyden  the  chronicle  tells  of  the  hardships  under  which 
they  had  lived  there,  the  encroachments  of  old  age,  the  dis 
turbing  effects  of  the  life  on  the  children,  and,  lastly,  the 
great  hope  they  entertained  of  advancing  the  church  of  Christ 
in  some  remote  part  of  the  world.  It  recounts  many  of  the 


8  A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

objections  advanced  against  attempting  settlement  in  America, 
and  concludes : 

It  was  answered,  that  all  great  and  honorable  actions  are  accom 
panied  with  great  difficulties,  and  must  be  both  enterprised  and  over 
come  with  answerable  courages.  It  was  granted  the  dangers  were 
great,  but  not  desperate ;  the  difficulties  were  many,  but  not  invincible. 
For  though  there  were  many  of  them  likely,  yet  they  were  not  certain ; 
it  might  be  sundry  of  the  things  feared  might  never  befall ;  others,  by 
provident  care  and  the  use  of  good  means,  might  in  a  great  measure 
be  prevented ;  and  all  of  them,  through  the  help  of  God,  by  fortitude 
and  patience,  might  either  be  barrne  or  overcome.  True  it  was,  that 
such  attempts  were  not  to  be  made  and  undertaken  without  good 
ground  and  reason ;  not  rashly  or  lightly,  as  many  have  done  for 
curiosity  or  hope  of  gain,  etc.  But  their  condition  was  not  ordinary ; 
their  ends  were  good  and  honorable;  their  calling  lawful  and  urgent; 
and  therefore  they  might  expect  the  blessing  of  God  in  their  proceeding. 
Yea,  though  they  should  lose  their  lives  in  this  action,  yet  might  they 
have  comfort  in  the  same,  and  their  endeavors  would  be  honorable. 

Unhappily  this  heroic  trait  of  Puritanism  was  coupled  with 
a  desperate  religious  bigotry  which  the  world  is  even  yet  slow 
to  forgive. 

One  of  the  earliest  local  dissenters  was  Thomas  Morton 
(1575  ?-i646),  author  of  the  "New  English  Canaan,"  published 
in  London,  1637.  It  is  a  half-pathetic  fact  that  this  should 
stand  out  to-day  beyond  anything  else  written  in  the  same 
decade  in  America,  for  the  best  of  it  —  the  third  book  —  is  a 
savage  satire  on  the  Puritans  in  Massachusetts.  Morton,  it  is 
needless  to  say,  was  not  a  Puritan  himself.  He  was  a  restless, 
dishonest,  unscrupulous  gentleman-adventurer  from  London 
who  gave  the  best  part  of  his  life  to  fighting  the  Puritans  on 
their  own  grounds.  He  started  a  fur-trading  post  at  "  Merry 
Mount,"  just  southeast  of  Boston,  sold  the  Indians  liquor  and 
firearms,  consorted  with  their  women,  and  in  wanton  mockery 
set  up  a  Maypole  there  and  taught  the  Indians  the  English 
games  and  dances  which  were  particularly  offensive  to  the 
grave  residents  of  Plymouth  and  Boston.  If  he  had  not 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  9 

written  his  book,  he  would  be  remembered  now  only  as  one  of 
the  chief  trouble-makers  whom  the  Puritans  had  to  fight  down ; 
but  he  did  them  more  damage  with  his  pen  than  with  all  his 
active  misbehavior.  He  undermined  their  influence  by  not 
treating  them  soberly.  He  made  fun  of  their  costume,  derided 
their  speech,  ridiculed  their  religious  formalities,  and  held  the 
valiant  Miles  Standish  up  to  scorn  by  nicknaming  him  Captain 
Shrimp.  He  went  further,  and  questioned  their  motives  and 
their  honesty,  their  integrity  in  business,  and  their  sincerity 
in  religion.  A  great  deal  of  what  he  wrote  about  them  was 
libelously  unfair ;  he  should  never  be  taken  as  an  authority 
for  facts  unless  supported  by  other  writers  of  his  day.  But 
underneath  all  his  clever  abuse  of  them  and  their  ways,  there 
is  an  evident  basis  of  truth  which  is  confirmed  by  the  sober 
study  of  history.  Although  the  Puritans  were  brave,  strong, 
self-denying  servants  of  the  stern  God  whom  they  worshiped, 
they  were  sometimes  sanctimonious,  sometimes  cruelly  venge 
ful,  and  all  too  often  so  eager  to  achieve  His  ends  on  earth 
that  they  were  regardless  of  the  means  they  took.  At  the  very 
beginning  of  their  life  in  America,  Thomas  Morton  held  these 
characteristics  up  to  public  scorn ;  and  in  so  doing  he  made 
his  book  an  omen  of  the  long,  losing  battle  they  were  destined 
to  fight.  Morton's  effectiveness  as  a  writer  lies  in  the  fact  that 
however  ill-behaved  he  may  have  been,  he  was  attractively  — 
maybe  dangerously  —  genial  in  character.  He  was  in  truth 
"a  cheerful  liar";  but  he  lied  like  the  writer  of  fiction  who 
disregards  the  exact  facts  because  he  is  telling  a  good  story  as 
well  as  he  can  and  because  that  good  story  is  based  on  real  life. 
The  next  New  Englander  to  give  proof  that  the  Puritans 
were  not  having  an  easy  time  in  their  "  new  English  Canaan  " 
was  Nathaniel  Ward  (1578-1652?),  author  of  "  The  Simple 
Cobler  of  Aggawam."  In  character  and  convictions  he  was  as 
different  from  Morton  as  a  man  could  be.  When  he  wrote 
this  book,  which  was  published  in  London  in  1647,  he  was  an 
irascible  old  Puritan  who  had  suffered  much  for  his  faith,  and 


10          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

was  still  fighting  for  it,  although  very  near  to  his  threescore 
years  and  ten.  He  had  been  graduated  at  Cambridge,  gone 
into  the  Church  of  England,  been  hounded  there  for  his  liberal 
ism,  come  to  America,  and  served  a  pastorate  at  Agawam  (now 
Ipswich),  Massachusetts.  He  had  withdrawn  on  account  of  ill 
health,  but  later  had  served  the  state  so  well  that  he  was 
granted  six  hundred  acres  as  a  reward,  and  had  lived  on  there 
until  his  return  to  England  at  the  age  of  seventy.  He  believed 
fiercely  in  the  righteousness  of  the  Puritan  doctrines  and  in  the 
wickedness  of  any  departure  from  them  ;  and  his  book  was  a 
valiant  protest  against  any  relaxation  on  the  part  of  the  faith 
ful.  It  was  written  with  reference  to  conditions  in  England, 
but  it  was  composed  after  fifteen  years'  residence  in  America, 
and  showed  his  unrest  at  conditions  in  the  new  country  as 
well  as  in  the  old. 

The  book  is  a  strange  compound.  In  thought  it  is  a  piece 
of  dyed-in-the-wool  old  fogyism,  but  in  form  and  literary  style  it 
is  vigorous,  jaunty,  and  amusing.  The  full  title  is  "  The  Simple 
Cobler  of  Aggawam  in  America ;  willing  to  help  Mend  his 
Native  Country,  lamentably  tattered,  both  in  the  upper-Leather 
and  sole,  with  all  the  honest  stitches  he  can  take.  And  as  will 
ing  never  to  be  paid  for  his  work  by  Old  English  wonted  pay. 
It  is  his  Trade  to  patch  all  the  year  long,  gratis.  Therefore  I 
Pray  Gentlemen  keep  your  Purses."  He  feared  all  innovations, 
but  most  of  all  the  doctrine  that  men  should  enjoy  liberty  of 
conscience.  "  Let  all  the  wits  under  the  Heavens  lay  their  heads 
together  and  find  an  Assertion  worse  than  this  [and]  I  will  Peti 
tion  to  be  chosen  the  universal  Ideot  of  the  World."  "  Since  I 
knew  what  to  fear,  my  timorous  heart  hath  dreaded  three  things : 
a  blazing  Star  appearing  in  the  Air ;  a  State  Comet,  I  mean  a 
favourite,  rising  in  a  kingdom ;  a  new  Opinion  spreading  in  Re 
ligion."  The  second  section  of  the  book  is  devoted  to  fashions 
of  dress,  an  evergreen  subject  for  the  satirist.  Ward's  attitude 
toward  woman  as  an  inferior  creature  was  almost  as  primitive 
as  that  of  the  cave  man,  and  apparently  he  would  have  liked  it 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  II 

better  if  the  "bullymong  drossock  "  had  dressed  with  the  sim 
plicity  of  a  cave  woman.  As  it  was  he  felt  that  the  lady  of 
fashion  was  "  the  very  gizzard  of  a  trifle,  the  product  of  the 
quarter  of  a  cypher,  the  epitome  of  Nothing" ;  and  he  had  equal 
contempt  for  tailors  who  "  spend  their  lives  in  making  fidle- 
cases  for  futulous  Women's  phansies ;  which  are  the  very  petti 
toes  of  Infirmity,  the  giblets  of  perquisquilian  toyes."  The 
remainder  of  the  work  is  given  to  a  discussion  of  affairs  of 
English  state,  written  with  the  same  aggressive  positiveness. 
The  most  interesting  bit  of  it  is  the  portion  which  proclaims 
his  belief  in  savage  oppression  of  the  Irish,  summing  up  the 
essence  of  the  wrong-headed  stupidity  which  has  made  the  his 
tory  of  Ireland  so  lamentable  a  story  even  to  the  present  time. 
What  the  old  gentleman  wrote  is  striking  at  points,  because  it 
seems  so  timely.  But  Ward  was  never  up  to  date,  in  the  sense 
of  being  prophetic.  When  he  said  things  that  apply  to  the 
twentieth  century,  they  apply  either  because,  like  the  question 
of  extravagance  in  dress,  the  topic  is  a  persistent  trait  in  human 
nature  or  because,  like  the  Irish  problem,  matters  which  should 
long  ago  have  been  settled  have  been  allowed  for  centuries 
to  confuse  and  complicate  life.  Yet  Ward  wrote  with  odd  and 
striking  effectiveness ;  and  his  book  is  far  more  than  the 
"curiosity"  which  many  critics  have  agreed  to  call  it,  for  it 
is  one  of  the  best  surviving  records  of  the  Puritan  attempt  to 
maintain  a  strangle  hold  on  human  thought. 

The  belief  in  the  righteousness  of  persecuting  dissenters  was 
the  particular  ground  for  attack  by  a  younger  and  equally  vig 
orous  man,  Roger  Williams  (1604-1683).  Williams,  before  he 
was  forty  years  old,  had  been  thrown  out  of  two  church  estab 
lishments —  first  in  Protestant  England  and  then  in  Puritan 
Massachusetts.  He  represented  what  Macaulay  termed  the  very 
"  dissidence  of  dissent."  And  now,  in  a  long  and  laborious  argu 
ment  lasting  from  1644  to  1652,  he  fought  out  the  issue  with 
the  Reverend  John  Cotton.  Only  by  the  most  generous  inter 
pretation  can  the  lengthening  chain  of  this  printed  controversy 


12          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

be  considered  as  literature,  yet  it  has  the  same  right  to  in 
clusion  as  the  English  disquisitions  of  Wyclif,  Jeremy  Taylor, 
and  John  Wesley.  An  English  prisoner  in  Newgate,  assailing 
persecution  for  cause  of  conscience,  had  been  answered  by  John 
Cotton.  Then  followed  Williams's  "The  Bloody  Tenent  of 
Persecution  for  cause  of  Conscience,  discussed  in  a  Conference 
between  Truth  and  Peace"  (1644);  Cotton's  reply  "The  Bloody 
Tenent  washed  and  made  white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb  " 
(1647);  and  Williams's  rejoinder,  "The  Bloody  Tenent  yet 
More  Bloody :  by  Mr.  Cottons  endeavor  to  wash  it  white  in  the 
Blood  of  the  Lambe"  (1652).  The  whole  process  of  argument 
by  both  the  reverend  gentlemen  was  to  set  their  literal  English 
minds  to  work  at  analyzing  and  expounding  Biblical  passages 
which  were  full  of  oriental  richness  of  imagery.  It  was,  all 
things  considered,  rather  less  reasonable  than  it  would  be  for 
the  chancellors  of  the  British  and  German  empires  to  base  an 
argument  about  the  freedom  of  the  seas  upon  definite  citations 
from  the  "  Rubaiyat "  of  Omar  Khayyam. 

The  chief  grounds  of  offense  in  the  sinful  unorthodoxy  of 
Roger  Williams  were  that  he  asserted  two  things  which  have 
become  axioms  to-day,  and  two  more  which  will  be  admitted  by 
every  thoughtful  and  honest  person.  The  first  two  were  that 
religion  should  not  be  professed  by  those  who  did  not  believe  it 
in  their  hearts,  and  that  the  power  of  the  magistrates  extended 
only  to  the  bodies  and  the  property  of  the  subjects  and  not  to 
their  religious  convictions.  The  second  two  were  that  America 
belonged  to  the  Indians  and  not  to  the  king  of  England,  and 
that  the  established  church  was  necessarily  corrupt.  By  this 
last  he  meant  simply  that  any  human  organization  that  is  given 
complete  authority,  and  need  not  fear  either  competition  or 
overthrow  by  public  opinion,  is  certain  to  decay  from  within. 
It  was  the  idea  beneath  Tennyson's  lines 

The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 

And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 

Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world. 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  13 

Yet  these  opinions,  preached  and  practiced  by  Williams,  resulted 
in  his  being  expelled  from  the  community.  The  attempt  was 
made  to  send  him  back  to  England,  but  he  managed  to  get  a 
permanent  foothold  in  Rhode  Island,  where  he  opposed  the 
still  more  liberal  Quakers  almost  as  violently  as  the  churchmen 
of  old  and  new  England  had  opposed  him.  To  his  credit  be 
it  said,  however,  that  he  did  not  invoke  the  law  against  them. 
In  action  as  well  as  in  belief*  he  marked  the  progress  of  liberal 
thought. 

BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

EGGLESTON,  EDWARD.   The  Transit  of  Civilization. 

FISKE,  JOHN.    Beginnings  of  New  England.    Chaps,  ii,  iii. 

HART,  A.  B.    American  History  told  by  Contemporaries.    Vol.  I,  pp. 

200-272,  3 1 3-393. 

RICHARDSON,  C.  F.    American  Literature.    Chaps,  i-iii. 
TYLER,  M.  C.    History  of  American  Literature.    Colonial  Period.    Vol.  I, 

chaps,  i-ix. 
WENDELL,  BARRETT.  A  Literary  History  of  America.  Bk.  I,  chaps,  i-iv. 

Individual  Authors 

CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH.  A  True  Relation  (London,  1608);  A  Map  of 
Virginia,  with  a  Description  of  the  Country  (Oxford,  161 2);  A  Descrip 
tion  of  New  England  (London,  1616). 

Available  Editions 

FORCE.    Historical  Tracts,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  i  and  2.    1883. 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Ser.  j,  Vol.  VI. 

Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  1-18. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  1-8,  33-43. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

PP-  3-17- 

Narratives,  of  Early  Virginia.    L.  G.  Tyler,  editor.    1907. 
Sailors  Narratives.    G.  P.  Winship,  editor.    1905. 

WILLIAM  BRADFORD.  History  of  Plimouth  Plantation.  First  published 
in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Ser.  4,  Vol.  IIL 

Available  Editions 

Charles  Deane,  editor.   1896. 
W.  T.  Davis,  editor.   1912. 


14          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  27-44. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
PP-  93~13°- 

THOMAS  MORTON.  New  English  Canaan,  or  New  Canaan.  Amsterdam, 
1637. 

Available  Editions 

FORCE.    Historical  Tracts,  Vol.  II,  No.  5.    1883.    C.  F.  Adams,  editor. 
Prince  Historical  Society  Publications.    1888.    C.  F.  Adams,  editor. 

Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  60-72. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  28-30. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

pp.  147-156. 

NATHANIEL  WARD.  The  Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawam  in  America. 
London,  1647. 

Available  Editions 

FORCE.    Historical  Tracts,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  8.    1906. 

Ipswich  Historical  Society  of  Ipswich,  Mass.    Publications. 

Biography 

A  Memoir  of  Nathaniel  Ward.   J.  W.  Dean.    1868. 

Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.   Early  American  Writers,  pp.  112-124. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  18-20. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

pp.  147-156- 

ROGER  WILLIAMS.  Works.  Edited  by  members  of  the  Narragansett 
Club,  Providence,  1866-1874.  6  vols.  Contains  likewise  J.  Cotton's 
contributions  to  the  controversy  with  Williams,  together  with  a 
bibliography  of  Williams's  works. 

Available  Edition 

Letters  from  1632  to  1675.   Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Ser.  4,  Vol.  VI. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

CARPENTER,  E.  J.    Roger  Williams ;  a  Study  of  the  Life,  etc.   Grafton 

History  Series.    1909. 

MASSON,  DAVID.    Life  of  John  Milton,  Vols.  II,  III. 
STRAUS,  OSCAR  S.    Roger  Williams,  the  Pioneer  of  Religious  Liberty. 
1894- 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  15 

Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  94-111. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  32-38. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

pp.  246-253. 

Literary  Treatment  of  the  Period 
Drama 

BARKER,  J.  N.   The  Indian  Princess  ;  an  Operatic  Melodrama  (1808), 

in  Representative  Plays  by  American  Dramatists  (edited  by  M.  J. 

Moses),  Vol.  I.    1918. 
CUSTIS,  G.  W.  P.   Pocahontas,  or  The  Settlers  of  Virginia  ;  a  National 

Drama  (1830),  in  Representative  American  Plays  (edited  by  A.  H. 

Quinn).    1917. 
Essays 

EMERSON,  R.  W.    Discourse  at  Concord,  2ooth  Anniversary.  Works, 

Vol.  XI. 

LOWELL,  J.  R.    New  England  Two  Centuries  Ago.   Works,  Vol.  II. 
WHITTIER,  J.  G.    A  Chapter  of  History,  in  Literary  Recreations  and 

Miscellanies. 
Fiction 

AUSTIN,  MRS.  J.  G.    Standish  of  Standish. 

AUSTIN,  MRS.  J.  G.    Betty  Alden  (sequel). 

AUSTIN,  MRS.  J.  G.    David  Alden's  Daughter. 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.   The  Gray  Champion  and  The  Maypole 

of  Merry  Mount,  in  Twice-Told  Tales. 
HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.    Young  Goodman  Brown,  in  Mosses  from 

an  Old  Manse. 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.  The  Scarlet  Letter. 
JOHNSTON,  MARY.    By  Order  of  the  Company. 
JOHNSTON,  MARY.   The  Old  Dominion. 
MOTLEY,  J.  L.    Merry  Mount. 
Poetry 

Poems  of  American  History  (edited  by  B.  E.  Stevenson),  pp.  36-56. 
American  History  by  American  poets  (edited  by  N.  U.  Wallington). 

Vol.  I,  pp.  39-92. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  "New  English  Canaan,"  Bk.  Ill,  with  a  view  to  de 
ciding  how  far  Morton's  evident  prejudice  discredited  his  account  of 
the  Puritans ;  examine  it  again  for  its  specifically  literary  qualities. 

Read  from  Bradford's  "  History  of  Plimouth  Plantation  "  for  the 
admirable  traits  of  Puritanism  and  see,  also,  if  you  find  grounds  for 
any  of  Morton's  strictures. 


16          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Read  the  Hawthorne  selections  in  the  Book  List  —  Literary  Treat 
ment  of  the  Period  —  and  decide  how  far  he  may  have  sympathized 
with  the  attitude  of  Morton  in  the  "  New  English  Canaan." 

Read  from  "  The  Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawam  "  for  any  evidence 
of  Nathaniel  Ward's  residence  in  America ;  decide  on  the  degree  to 
which  the  work  is  English  and  the  degree  to  which  it  is  colonial. 

Compare  the  attitude  toward  Ireland  of  Nathaniel  Ward  in  this 
work  and  of  Jonathan  Swift  in  his  "  Modest  Proposal." 

Make  comparisons  in  diction  from  a  corresponding  number  of 
pages  in  "  The  Simple  Cobler  "  and  in  Carlyle's  "  Sartor  Resartus." 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  EARLIEST  VERSE 

Although  it  is  generally  said  of  the  Puritans  that  they  were 
actually  hostile  to  all  the  arts,  there  is  abundant  proof  that  they 
had  a  liking  for  verse  and  a  widespread  inclination  to  try  their 
hands  at  it.  They  wrote  memorial  verses  of  the  most  intricate 
and  ingenious  sorts,  sometimes  carving  them  in  stone  as  epi 
taphs.  There  is  less  verse  sprinkled  through  the  unregenerate 
Morton's  "  Canaan  "  than  there  is  in  the  intolerant  Ward's 
"  Cobler."  The  old  conservative  never  wrote  more  wisely  than 
in  this  so-called  "  song  "  :  » 

They  seldom  lose  the  field,  but«often  win, 

Who  end  their  Warres,  before  their  Warres  begin. 

Their  Cause  is  oft  the  worse,  that  first  begin, 
And  they  may  lose  the  field,  the  field  that  win. 

In  Civil  Warres  'twixt  Subjects  and  their  King, 
There  is  no  conquest  got,  by  conquering. 

Warre  ill  begun,  the  onely  way  to  mend, 

Is  t'  end  the  Warre  before  the  Warre  do  end. 

They  that  will  end  ill  Warres,  must  have  the  skill, 
To  make  an  end  by  Rule,  and  not  by  Will. 

In  ending  Warres  'tween  Subjects  and  their  Kings, 
Great  things  are  sav'd  by  losing  little  things. 

The  first  whole  volume  in  English  printed  in  the  Western 
Hemisphere  (printing  of  Spanish  books  in  Mexico  had  long 
preceded)  was  "The  Bay  Psalm  Book,"  Cambridge,  1640.  This 
represented  a  conscientious  attempt  to  put  into  the  service  of 
worship  a  literal  translation  of  the  Psalms.  The  worst  passages 

17 


1 8          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

are  all  too  frequently  cited  as  evidence  of  the  inability  of  the 
Puritans  to  compose  or  appreciate  good  verse.  And  this  in  spite 
of  the  often-quoted  and  charmingly  written  prose  comment  in 
the  editors'  preface  : 

If  therefore  the  verses  are  not  alwayes  so  smooth  and  elegant  as 
some  may  desire  or  expect ;  let  them  consider  that  God's  Altar  needs 
not  our  pollishings:  Ex.  20.  for  wee  have  respected  rather  a  plaine 
translation,  then  to  smooth  our  verses  with  the  sweetness  of  any 
paraphrase,  and  soe  have  attended  Conscience  rather  than  Elegance, 
fidelity  rather  then  poetry,  in  translating  the  hebrew  words  into  eng- 
lish  language,  and  David's  poetry  into  english  meetre ;  that  soe  wee 
may  sing  in  Sion  the  Lords  songs  of  prayse  according  to  his  owne 
will;  untill  hee  take  us  from  hence  and  wipe  away  all  our  teares, 
&  bid  us  enter  into  our  masters  joye  to  sing  eternall  Halleluliahs. 

Some  historians,  moreover,  seem  to  derive  satisfaction  from 
quoting  passages  from  Michael  Wigglesworth's  (1631-1705) 
"  Day  of  Doom"  as  added  proof  that  the  Puritans  were  never 
able  to  write  verse  that  was  beautiful  or  even  graceful.  It  must 
be  admitted  that  this  grave  and  pretentious  piece  of  work  was 
hardly  more  lovely  than  the  name  of  the  author.  Wigglesworth 
was  a  devoted  Puritan  who  came  to  America  at  the  age  of  seven ; 
graduated  from  Harvard  College ;  qualified  to  practice  medi 
cine  ;  and  then  became  a  preacher,  serving,  with  intermissions  of 
ill  health,  as  pastor  in  Maiden,  Massachusetts,  from  1657  until 
his  death  in  1705.  He  was  a  gentle,  kindly  minister,  unfailing 
in  his  care  for  both  the  bodies  and  the  souls  of  his  parishioners. 

He  had  the  "  lurking  propensity  "  for  verse- writing  which 
was  common  among  the  men  of  his  time,  but  instead  of  venting 
it  merely  in  the  composing  of  acrostics,  anagrams,  and  epitaphs, 
he  dedicated  it  to  the  Lord  in  the  writing  of  a  sort  of  rimed 
sermon  on  the  subject  of  the  Day  of  Judgment.  The  full  title 
reads,  "  The  Day  of  Doom  or,  a  Description  Of  the  Great  and 
Last  Judgment  with  a  short  discourse  about  Eternity.  Eccles. 
12.  14.  For  God  shall  bring  every  work  into  judgment  with 
every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good,  or  whether  it  be  evil." 
It  was  printed,  probably  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  in  1662. 


THE  EARLIEST  VERSE  19 


The  poem  is  composed  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-four  eight-line 
stanzas.  After  an  invocation  and  the  announcement  of  the  day 
of  doom,  the  dead  come  from  their  graves  before  the  throne  of 
Christ.  There  the  "sheep"  who  have  been  chosen  for  salva 
tion  are  placed  on  the  right,  and  the  wicked  "goats"  come  in 
groups  to  hear  the  judge's  verdict.  These  include  hypocrites, 
civil,  honest  men,  those  who  died  in  youth  before  they  were 
converted,  those  who  were  misled  by  the  example  of  the  good, 
those  who  did  not  understand  the  Bible,  those  who  feared  mar 
tyrdom  more  than  hell-torment,  those  who  thought  salvation  was 
hopeless,  and,  finally,  those  who  died  as  babes.  All  are  sternly 
answered  from  the  throne,  and  all  are  swept  off  to  a  common 
eternal  doom  except  the  infants,  for  whom  is  reserved  "the 
easiest  room  in  hell." 

Two  facts  should  be  remembered  in  criticizing  "  The  Day 
of  Doom  "  as  poetry.  The  first  is  that  Wigglesworth  wrote  it 
consciously  as  a  teacher  and  preacher  and  not  as  a  poet.  In  his 
introduction  he  said : 

Reader,  I  am  a  fool 

And  have  adventured 

To  play  the  fool  this  once  for  Christ, 

The  more  his  fame  to  spread. 

If  this  my  foolishness 

Help  thee  to  be  more  wise, 

I  have  attained  what  I  seek, 

And  what  I  only  prize. 

The  second  point  is  that  in  writing  a  rimed  sermon  for 
Christian  worshipers  he  had  a  model  supplied  him  in  the 
popular  "Bay  Psalm  Book,"  which  had  appeared  some  twenty 
years  before  and  which  was  familiar  to  all  the  people  who  were 
likely  to  be  his  readers.  The  translators  of  the  I2ist  Psalm 
wrote,  for  example  : 

1  I  to  the  hills  lift  up  mine  eyes, 

from  whence  shall  come  mine  aid 

2  Mine  help  doth  from  Jehovah  come, 

which  heav'n  and  earth  hath  made. 


20          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

And  Wigglesworth  took  up  the  strain  with 

No  heart  so  bold,  but  now  grows  cold, 

and  almost  dead  with  fear ; 
No  eye  so  dry  but  now  can  cry, 

and  pour  out  many  a  tear. 

To  any  modern  reader  the  use  of  this  light-footed  meter  for 
so  grave  a  subject  seems  utterly  ill-considered,  and  the  whole 
idea  of  the  day  of  doom  as  he  presented  it  seems  so  unnatural 
as  to  be  amusing.  But  Wigglesworth  was  trying  to  write  a 
rimed  summary  of  what  everybody  thought,  in  a  meter  with 
which  everybody  was  familiar,  and  he  was  unqualifiedly  suc 
cessful.  A  final  verdict  on  Michael  Wigglesworth  is  often 
superciliously  pronounced  on  the  basis  of  this  one  poem,  or,  if 
any  further  attention  is  conceded  him,  the  worst  of  his  remain 
ing  output  is  produced  for  evidence  that  he  and  all  Puritan 
preachers  were  clumsy  and  prosaic  verse- writers. 

Yet  in  the  never-quoted  lines  immediately  following  "  The 
Day  of  Doom "  —  a  poem  without  a  title,  on  the  vanity  of 
human  wishes  —  Michael  Wfgglesworth  gave  proofs  of  human 
kindliness  and  of  poetic  power.  In  these  earnest  lines  Wiggles- 
worth  showed  a  mastery  of  fluent  verse,  a  control  of  poetic 
imagery,  and  a  gentle  yearning  for  the  souls'  welfare  of  his 
parishioners  which  is  the  utterance  of  the  pastor  rather  than  of 
the  theologian.  For  a  moment  God  ceases  to  be  angry,  Christ 
stands  pleading  without  the  gate,  and  the  good  pastor  utters 
a  poem  upon  the  neglected  theme  "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  within  you  "  : 

Fear  your  great  Maker  with  a  child-like  awe, 

Believe  his  Grace,  love  and  obey  his  Law. 

This  is  the  total  work  of  man,  and  this 

Will  crown  you  here  with  Peace  and  there  with  Bliss. 

"The  Day  of  Doom,"  however,  was  far  more  popular  than 
the  better  poetry  that  Wigglesworth  wrote  at  other  times.  It 
was  the  most  popular  book  of  the  century  in  America.  People 


THE  EARLIEST  VERSE  21 

memorized  its  easy,  jingling  meter  just  as  they  might  have  memo 
rized  ballads  or,  at  a  later  day,  Mother  Goose  rimes  ;  and  the 
grim  description  became  "the  solace,"  as  Lowell  says,  "of  every 
fireside,  the  flicker  of  the  pine-knots  by  which  it  was  conned 
perhaps  adding  a  livelier  relish  to  its  premonitions  of  eternal 
combustion."  The  popularity  of  "The  Day  of  Doom"  shows 
that  in  the  very  years  when  the  Royalists  were  returning:  to 
power  in  England  the  Puritans  were  greatly  in  the  majority  in 
New  England.  The  reaction  marked  by  Morton,  Ward,  and 
Roger  Williams  was  only  beginning.  Moreover,  if  it  had  been 
the  only  "  poetry  "  of  the  period,  we  should  have  to  admit  that 
the  Puritans  were  almost  hopelessly  unpoetical. 

Anne  Bradstreet  (1612-1672)  proves  the  contrary,  and  in 
doing  so  she  proves  how  the  love  of  beauty  can  manage  to 
bloom  under  the  bleakest  skies.  Her  talent  was  assuredly  a 
"flower  in  a  crannied  wall."  She  was  born  in  England  in  1612 
and  was  married  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  as  girls  often  were  in  those 
days,  to  a  man  several  years  older,  Simon  Bradstreet.  In  1630 
she  came  to  Massachusetts  with  her  husband  and  her  father. 
Both  became  eminent  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  In  the  family 
they  were  doubtless  sober  and  probably  dull.  Mrs.  Bradstreet 
kept  house  under  pioneer  conditions  in  one  place  after  another, 
and  when  still  less  than  forty  years  old  had  become  the  mother 
of  eight  children.  Yet  somewhere  in  the  rare  moments  of  her 
crowded  days  —  and  one  can  imagine  how  far  apart  those 
moments  must  have  been  —  she  put  into  verse  "a  compleat 
Discourse  and  Description  of  The  Four  Elements,  Constitu 
tions,  Ages  of  Man,  Seasons  of  the  Year ;  Together  with  an 
exact  Epitome  of  the  four  Monarchies,  viz.,  the  Assyrian, 
Persian,  Grecian,  Roman  "  [this  means  five  long  poems,  and 
not  two] ;  "  also  a  dialogue  between  Old  England  and  New 
concerning  the  late  troubles ;  with  divers  other  pleasant  and 
serious  poems."  All  these  she  wrote  without  apparent  thought 
of  publication,  for  the  purely  artistic  reason  that  she  enjoyed 
doing  so;  and  in  1650  —  halfway  between  "The  Bay  Psalm 


22          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Book"  and  "  The  Day  of  Doom  "  —  they  were  taken  over  to 
London  by  a  friend,  and  there  put  into  print  as  the  work  of 
"  The  Tenth  Muse  Lately  Sprung  up  in  America." 

Poetry  was  more  than  a  diversion  for  Anne  Bradstreet ;  it 
must  have  been  a  passion.  As  a  girl  she  had  been  allowed  to 
read  in  the  library  of  the  Puritan  Earl  of  Lincoln,  over  whose 
estate  her  father  was  steward.  And  here  she  had  fallen  under 
the  spell  of  the  lesser  poets  of  her  age,  naturally  not  the  dram 
atists,  whom  the  Puritans  opposed.  So,  after  their  fashion,  and 
particularly  in  the  fashion  of  a  Frenchman,  Du  Bartas,  whose 
works  were  popular  in  an  English  translation,  she  wrote  her 
quaint  "  quarternions,"  or  poems  on  the  four  elements,  the  four 
seasons,  the  four  ages,  and  the  four  "humours,"  and  capped 
them  all  with  the  four  monarchies.  These  are  interesting  to 
the  modern  reader  only  as  examples  of  how  the  human  mind 
used  to  work.  Chaucer  had  juggled  with  the  same  materials ; 
Ben  Jonson  had  been  fascinated  with  them.  It  was  a  literary 
tradition  to  develop  them  one  by  one,  to  set  them  in  debate 
against  each  other,  and  to  interweave  them  into  corresponding 
groups  :  childhood,  water,  winter,  phlegm  ;  youth,  air,  spring, 
blood ;  manhood,  fire,  summer,  choler ;  and  old  age,  earth, 
autumn,  melancholy. 

Yet  her  chief  claim  on  our  interest  is  founded  on  the 
shorter  poems,  in  which  she  took  least  pride.  In  these  she 
showed  her  real  command  of  word  and  measure  to  express 
poetic  thought.  Her  "  Contemplations,"  for  example,  is  as 
poetic  in  thought  as  Bryant's  "  Thanatopsis,"  or  as  Lanier's 
"  The  Marshes  of  Glynn,"  to  which  it  stands  in  suggestive 
contrast  (see  pp.  161  and  357).  The  former  two  are  on 
the  idea  that  nature  endures  but  man  passes  away.  This  was 
never  long  absent  from  the  Puritan  mind,  but  when  it  came 
to  the  ordinary  Puritan  it  was  likely  to  be  cast  into  homely 
and  prosaic  verse,  as  in  the  epitaph  : 

The  path  of  death  it  must  be  trod 
By  them  that  wish  to  walk  with  God. 


THE  EARLIEST  VERSE  23 

Anne  Bradstreet,  taking  the  same  observation,  wrote  with 
noble  dignity : 

O  Time  the  fatal  wrack  of  mortal  things, 

That  draws  oblivions  curtain  over  kings, 

Their  sumptuous  monuments,  men  know  them  not, 

Their  names  without  a  Record  are  forgot, 

Their  parts,  their  ports,  their  pomp  's  all  laid  in  th'  dust 

Nor  wit,  nor  gold,  nor  buildings,  scape  time's  rust ; 

But  he  whose  name  is  grav'd  in  the  white  stone 1 

Shall  last  and  shine  when  all  of  these  are  gone. 

Yet  as  a  strictly  Puritan  poetess  she  did  only  one  part  of  her 
work.  She  was  even  more  interesting  as  an  early  champion 
of  her  sex.  She  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  assert  equality  of  the 
sexes ;  that  was  too  far  in  advance  of  the  age  for  her  imagina 
tion.  But  she  did  contend  that  women  should  be  given  credit 
for  whatever  was  worth  "  small  praise."  This  appears  again 
and  again  in  her  shorter  poems. 

Let  Greeks  be  Greeks,  and  women  what  they  are 

Men  have  precedency  and  still  excell, 

It  is  but  vain  unjustly  to  wage  warre ; 

Men  can  do  best,  and  women  know  it  well ; 

Preheminence  in  all  and  each  is  yours ; 

Yet  grant  some  small  acknowledgment  of  ours. 

Naturally  she  was  full  of  pride  in  the  achievements  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  a  pride  which  she  expressed  in  a  fine  song 
"  In  Honour  of  that  High  and  Mighty  Princess  "  : 

From  all  the  Kings  on  earth  she  won  the  prize. 
Nor  say  I  more  then  duly  is  her  due, 
Millions  will  testifie  that  this  is  true. 
She  hath  wip'd  off  th'  aspersion  of  her  Sex, 
That  women  wisdom  lack  to  play  the  Rex : 
Spains  Monarch,  sayes  not  so,  nor  yet  his  host : 
She  taught  them  better  manners,  to  their  cost. 
1  Rev.  ii,  17. 


24          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  Salique  law,  in  force  now  had  not  been, 
If  France  had  ever  hop'd  for  such  a  Queen. 
But  can  you  Doctors  now  this  point  dispute, 
She  's  Argument  enough  to  make  you  mute. 
Since  first  the  sun  did  run  his  nere  run  race, 
And  earth  had  once  a  year,  a  new  old  face, 
Since  time  was  time,  and  man  unmanly  man, 
Come  shew  me  such  a  Phoenix  if  you  can  ? 

Then  follows  a  recital  of  Elizabeth's  proudest  triumphs,  and 
assertions  of  how  far  she  surpassed  Tomris,  Dido,  Cleopatra, 
Zenobya,  and  the  conclusion  : 

Now  say,  have  women  worth  ?  or  have  they  none  ? 
Or  had  they  some,  but  with  our  Queen  is  't  gone  ? 
Nay  Masculines,  you  have  thus  taxt  us  long, 
But  she,  though  dead,  will  vindicate  our  wrong. 
Let  such  as  say  our  Sex  is  void  of  Reason, 
Know  tis  a  Slander  now,  but  once  was  Treason. 

Anne  Bradstreet  foreshadowed  the  "  woman's  movement " 
of  to-day  by  two  full  centuries,  and  thus  showed  how  even  the 
daughter  of  one  Puritan  governor  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
wife  of  another  could  be  thinking  and  aspiring  far  in  advance 
of  her  times. 

BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

OTIS,  W.  B.  American  Verse,  1625-1807.  1909.  (A  full  and  valuable 
bibliography  appended.) 

TUCKER,  S.  M.  In  chap,  ix  of  Cambridge  History  of  American  Litera 
ture,  Vol.  I,  Bk.  I. 

TYLER,  M.  C.  A  History  of  American  Literature.  Colonial  Period 
(1607-1765),  Vol.  I,  chaps,  x,  xi.  1878, 

Individual  Authors 

The  Bay  Psalm  Book.   The  Whole  Booke  of  Psalmes  Faithfully  Trans 
lated  into  English  Metre,  etc.    1 640. 
Available  Editions 
A  Reprint,  1862. 

Facsimile  Reprint  for  the  New  England  Society  in  the  City  of  New 
York,  1903. 


THE  EARLIEST  VERSE  25 

Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  73-81. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  16-18. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

pp.  211-216. 

MICHAEL  WIGGLESWORTH.  The  Day  of  Doom ;  or,  a  Description  of 
the  Great  and  Last  Judgment,  etc.  (1662).  Meat  out  of  the  Eater: 
or,  Meditations  concerning  the  necessity,  end  and  usefulness  of 
Afflictions  unto  God's  Children,  etc.  (1670).  God's  Controversy  with 
New  England  (1662).  Vanity  of  Vanities  (appended  to  3d  edition  of 
The  Day  of  Doom). 

Available  Editions 

The  Day  of  Doom,  1867. 

God's  Controversy  with  New  England.  Proceedings  of  the  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.,  1871. 

Biography 

Memoir  of  Michael  Wigglesworth.  J.  W.  Dean.  1871.  See  also 
M.  W.,*  earliest  poet  among  Harvard  graduates.  Proceedings  of 
the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1895. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.    American  Poetry,  pp.  18-23,  598-600. 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  163-177. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  57-59. 
STEDMAN    and    HUTCHINSON.     Library    of    American    Literature, 

Vol.  II,  pp.  3-19. 

ANNE  BRADSTREET.  The  Tenth  Muse  lately  sprung  up  in  America,  or 
Several  Poems,  compiled  with  great  Variety  of  Wit  and  Learning, 
full  of  Delight  —  by  a  Gentlewoman  in  those  parts.  1650. 

Available  Editions 

The  Club  of  Odd  Volumes,  1897. 

The  Works  of  Anne  Bradstreet,  in  Prose  and  Verse.    J.  H.  Ellis, 

editor.    1867.    This  contains  a  valuable  memoir. 
The    Works    of    Mrs.    Anne    Bradstreet,    together    with    her   prose 

remains,  and  with  an  introduction  by  Charles  Eliot  Norton. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

CAMPBELL,  HELEN.  Anne  Bradstreet  and  her  Time.    1891. 

TYLER,  M.  C.   American  Literature.   Colonial  Period,  Vol.  I,  chap.  x. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.    American  Poetry,  pp.  1-8,  594-598. 
CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  146-164. 


26          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  47-52- 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

pp.  311-315. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Confirm  the  comparison  of  meters  in  the  tf  Bay  Psalm  Book " 
and  "  The  Day  of  Doom." 

Read  the  opening  and  closing  passages  in  "  The  Day  of  Doom  " 
(Boynton,  "  American  Poetry,"  pp.  18-21)  for  the  genuinely  poetic 
material.  Compare  with  Milton's  use  of  the  same  material  in 
"Paradise  Lost,"  Bk.  I. 

Read  Anne  Bradstreet's  verses  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  Prologue 
to  the  long  poems,  the  rimed  epistles  to  her  husband,  and  the  tribu 
tary  poems  of  Nathaniel  Ward  and  others  (Boynton,  "  American 
Poetry,"  pp.  1-13  passim)  for  the  difference  —  even  with  her  liberal 
ism  —  between  her  point  of  view  and  that  of  the  modern  woman. 

Read  "  Contemplations "  and  a  passage  of  equal  length  from 
"  The  Faerie  Queene  "  for  likenesses  and  differences  in  versification. 

Compare  the  ideas  of  God  and  of  nature  in  "  Contemplations  "  (of 
the  later  seventeenth  century),  "  Thanatopsis"  (of  the  early  nineteenth), 
and  "  The  Marshes  of  Glynn  "  (of  the  later  nineteenth)  and  note  how 
far  they  are  personal  to  Anne  Bradstreet,  Bryant,  and  Lanier  and 
how  far  they  represent  the  spirit  of  their  respective  periods. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

As  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  approached,  the 
Puritans  were  still  in  an  overwhelming  majority  in  New  Eng 
land,  but  the  hold  of  the  churchmen  on  the  government  of  the 
colonies  was,  nevertheless,  being  slowly  and  reluctantly  relaxed. 
Government  in  America  has  always,  in  its  broad  aspects,  reflected 
the  will  of  the  people.  If  legislators  and  legislation  have  been 
vicious,  it  has  been  because  the  majority  of  the  people  have 
not  cared  enough  about  it  to  see  that  good  men  were  chosen. 
If  stupid  and  blundering  laws  have  been  passed,  it  has  been 
because  the  people  were  not  wide  awake  enough  to  analyze 
them.  On  the  other  hand  old  laws,  unadjusted  to  modern 
conditions,  have  often  become  •"  dead  letters"  because  the 
majority  did  not  wish  to  have  them  enforced,  even  though  they 
were  on  the  statute  books  ;  and  new  and  progressive  legislation 
has  been  imposed  on  reluctant  lawmakers  by  the  pressure  of 
public  opinion.  Now  the  Puritan  uprising  in  England  had 
been  a  democratic  movement  by  a  people  who  wanted  to  have 
a  hand  in  their  own  government.  It  was  a  religious  movement, 
because  in  England  Church  and  State  are  one  and  because  the 
oppression  in  religious  matters  had  been  particularly  offensive. 
And  in  England  it  had  been  on  the  whole  successful  in  spite 
of  the  restoration  of  kingship  in  1660,  for  from  that  time  on 
the  arbitrary  power  of  king  and  council  were  steadily  and 
increasingly  curbed.  As  a  consequence  there  was  a  parallel 
movement  in  the  democracy  across  the  sea.  American  colo 
nists  with  a  highly  developed  sense  of  justice  resented  a  bad 
royal  governor  like  Andros,  and  were  able  to  force  his  with 
drawal  ;  and  they  resented  unreasonable  domination  by  the 

27 


28          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

clergy,  and  were  independent  enough  to  shake  it  off.  Between 
1690  and  1700  Harvard  College  became  for  the  first  time 
something  more  than  a  training  school  for  preachers;  the  right 
to  vote  in  Boston  was  made  to  depend  on  moral  character  and 
property  ownership  instead  of  on  membership  in  the  church ; 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  Salem  witchcraft  hysteria  judges  and 
grand-jurymen  caught  their  balance  and  refused  any  longer  to 
act  as  cat's-paws  of  the  clergy.  The  passage  to  the  eighteenth 
century  was  therefore  a  time  of  transition  in  common  thinking ; 
and  the  record  of  the  change  is  clearly  discernible  in  the  liter 
ary  writings  of  the  old-line  conservatives  Cotton  and  Increase 
Mather,  in  the  Diary  of  Samuel  Sewall,  who  was  able  to  see  the 
light  and  to  change  slowly  with  his  generation,  and  in  the  Journal 
of  Sarah  Kemble  Knight,  who  represented  the  silent  unortho- 
doxy  of  hundreds  of  other  well-behaved  and  respectable  people. 
The  Mathers,  Increase  (1639-1723)  and  Cotton  (1663- 
1728),  were  the  second  and  third  of  a  succession  of  four 
members  of  one  family  who  were  so  popular  and  influential 
•  as  to  deserve  the  nickname  which  is  sometimes  given  them 
of  the  "  Mather  Dynasty."  These  two  were  both  born  in 
America,  educated  in  Boston  and  at  Harvard,  and  made 
church  leaders  while  still  young  men.  In  age  they  were  only 
twenty-four  years  apart,  and  from  1682  to  1723  they  worked 
together  to  uphold  and  increase  the  power  of  the  church  in 
New  England.  Because  of  their  prominence  as  preachers  they 
inherited  the  "  good  will "  which  had  belonged  to  their  greatest 
predecessors,  and  by  their  own  industry,  learning,  eloquence, 
and  general  vigor  they  added  to  their  ecclesiastical  fortunes 
like  skillful  business  men.  Their  congregations  were  large  and 
respectfully  attentive ;  scores  of  .their  sermons  were  reprinted 
by  request ;  on  all  public  occasions  and  in  all  public  discussions 
they  were  at  the  forefront.  They  were  great  popular  favorites, 
and  in  the  end  they  suffered  the  fate  of  many  another  popular 
favorite.  For  the  deference  which  was  given  to  them  year  after 
year  made  them  vain  and  domineering ;  they  talked  too  much 


TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     29 

and  too  long  and  too  confidently,  and  they  made  the  mistakes 
of  judgment  which  men  who  talk  all  the  time  are  bound  to 
make.  When  Increase  Mather  lost  the  presidency  of  Harvard 
in  1701  they  both  acted  like  spoiled  children;  their  prestige 
was  already  on  the  wane,  for  when  the  reaction  had  followed 
the  witchcraft  delusion,  to  which  .they  had  fanned  the  flames, 
the  caution  which  they  ha<J  advised  was  forgotten,  and  the 
encouragement  which  they  had  given  was  held  up  against 
them.  To  the  ends  of  their  lives,  in  1723  and  1728,  they 
were  proudly  unrelenting,  but  their  last  years  were  embittered 
by  the  knowledge  that  their  power  was  departed  from  them. 

The  bulk  of  their  authorship  was  prodigious,  even  though 
most  of  it  was  in  the  form  of  pamphlets  or  booklets,  for  it 
amounted  in  the  case  of  Increase  to  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  titles,  and  in  the  case  of  Cotton  to  nearly  four  hundred. 
But  they  are  chiefly  remembered  for  three  books :  "  An  Essay 
for  the  recording  of  Illustrious  Providences,"  by  the  elder;  and 
"The  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World"  and  the  "  Magnalia 
Christi  Americana:  Or  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  New- 
England,"  by  the  younger.  The  first  two  of  these  are  unin 
tended  explanations  to  the  twentieth-century  reader  as  to  how 
a  whole  community  could  ever  have  been  swept  into  the  Salem 
witchcraft  excesses  of  1692.  Any  educated  man  who  should 
advance  the  theories  to-day  which  were  soberly  expounded  by 
these  two  really  learned  men  weuld  be  held  up  to  scorn  and 
very  possibly  be  made  subject  of  a  sanity  investigation.  Yet 
two  hundred  years  ago  the  world  was  ignorant  of  the  common 
places  of  science.  Popular  superstition  therefore  ran  riot ;  and 
the  belief  that  God  would  interpose  in  the  affairs  of  daily  in 
dividual  life,  and  that  a  personal  devil  was  walking  up  and 
down  the  earth  seeking  whom  he  might  devour,  added  to  the 
confusion.  Medicine  in  those  days  was  hardly  a  science  even 
in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  word.  Physicians  depended  for 
honest  effects  on  a  few  simple  herb  remedies  and  on  power 
ful  emetics  and  the  letting  of  blood.  The  populace  believed 


30          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

in  curatives  which  still  are  resorted  to  only  by  children  and 
the  most  ignorant  of  grown-ups  —  like  anointing  implements 
with  which  they  had  been  injured,  in  order  to  heal  cuts  and 
bruises,  or  like  being  touched  by  the  monarch  as  a  remedy 
for  scrofula,  the  "  king's  evil."  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  a  well- 
known  subject  of  Charles  II,  reported  that  he  overcame  a 
persistent  illness  by  having  the  fumes  of  camomile  poured  into 
his  ear.  The  same  sort  of  speculation  prevailed  in  all  the  other 
sciences ;  and  side  by  side  with  it  superstition  flourished.  Be 
tween  1560  and  1600  in  the  little  kingdom  of  Scotland,  which 
had  a  population  no  larger  than  that  of  Massachusetts  to-day, 
there  were  eight  thousand  executions  for  witchcraft,  —  an  aver 
age  of  nearly  four  a  week ;  and  James  I,  who  was  Scotland's 
gift  to  England,  was  the  author  of  a  work  on  demonology. 

What  the  New  Englanders,  and  among  them  the  Mathers, 
believed  was,  therefore,  not  unusual  at  the  time.  In  fact  the 
Mathers  were  both  somewhat  less  credulous  than  their  fellows, 
but  they  only  substituted  one  superstition  for  another.  Their 
way  of  casting  off  the  old  and  vulgar  beliefs  which  were  pagan 
in  origin  was  to  contend  that  these  vain  and  foolish  ideas 
were  put  into  Christian  minds  by  Satan  and  his  emissaries. 
Said  Increase  Mather  in  his  "  Illustrious  Providences  "  : 

Some  also  have  believed  that  if  they  should  cast  Lead  into  the 
Water,  then  Saturn  would  discover  to  them  the  thing  they  inquired 
after.  It  is  not  Saturn  but  Satan  that  maketh  the  discovery,  when 
anything  is  in  such  a  way  revealed.  And  of  this  sort  is  the  foolish 
Sorcery  of  those  Women  that  put  the  white  of  an  Egg  into  a  Glass 
of  Water,  so  that  they  may  be  able  to  divine  of  what  Occupation  their 
future  husbands  shall  be.  It  were  much  better  to  remain  ignorant 
than  thus  to  consult  with  the  Devil.  These  kind  of  practices  appear 
at  first  blush  to  be  Diabolical ;  so  that  I  shall  not  multiply  Words  in 
evincing  the  evil  of  them.  It  is  noted  that  the  Children  of  Israel  did 
secretly  those  things  that  are  not  right  against  the  Lord  their  God  2  King. 
17.  9.  I  am  told  there  are  some  who  do  secretly  practice  such  Abomi 
nations  as  these  last  mentioned,  unto  whom  the  Lord  in  mercy  give 
deep  and  unfeigned  Repentance  and  pardon  for  their  grievous  Sin. 


TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     31 

These  preachers  thus  turned  superstition  into  an  enemy  of 
the  true  religion,  as  it  assuredly  is ;  but  they  regarded  it  not 
as  the  fruit  of  ignorance,  to  be  remedied  by  education  and 
intelligence,  but  as  a  device  of  Satan  which  could  be  offset  by 
preaching  and  prayer.  The  two  books  are  cut  from  the  same 
cloth,  so  that  an  indication  of  the  contents  of  the  one  just 
mentioned  will  give  an  idea  of  them  both.  The  chapter  head-  ' 
ings  run  as  follows :  Of  Remarkable  Sea  Deliverances ;  Pres 
ervations  ;  Lightening ;  Philosophical  Meditations ;  Things 
Preternatural  [voices  of  invisible  speakers  and  doings  of  mys 
terious  mischief-makers] ;  That  there  are  Daemons  and  Pos 
sessed  Persons  [three  main  arguments  :  ( i )  Scripture  forbade 
witchcraft,  therefore  there  must  be  such  a  thing ;  (2)  experience 
has  made  it  manifest ;  (3)  convicted  maldoers  have  confessed  it] ; 
Apparitions;  Conscience;  Deaf  and  Dumb  Persons;  Tempests; 
Earthquakes ;  and  Judgments.  As  a  whole  the  book  is  a  col 
lection  of  curious  anecdotes  taken  on  almost  any  hearsay,  but 
almost  all  at  second  or  third  hand.  They  resemble  some  of  the 
most  popular  of  the  atrocity  stories  which  have  been  told  during 
every  war  that  history  chronicles,  but  which  no  investigator  has 
been  able  to  run  down  in  any  single  instance.  In  point  of  su 
perstition  the  Mathers,  to  repeat,  should  be  considered  in  two 
lights :  compared  with  educated  men  of  the  twentieth  century 
they  were  almost  incredibly  primitive  in  what  they  were  willing 
to  believe,  but  considered  with  reference  to  their  own  generation 
they  fought  the  wiles  of  the  devil  as  soldiers  of  the  Lord. 

The  most  ambitious  work  that  either  produced  was  Cotton  Q^ 
Mather's  "Magnalia,"  a  history  of  the  Church  in  New  England.  9fr* 
This  was  a  bulky  two-volume  effort,  divided  into  seven  parts, 
or  books.    As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  really  a  general  history      > 
of  the  region  by  a  man  who  regarded  the  existence  of  New      \ 
England  as  identical  with  the  existence  of  the  Church.    In  this 
basic  assumption  as  well  as  in  many  of  his  details  Cotton  Mather      \ 
revealed  himself  as  a  hopeless  conservative  of  his  day  —  hope 
less  because  it  was  already  evident  to  all  but  him  and  his  kind 


32          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

that  the  State  was  shaking  off  the  control  of  the  Church  leaders. 
One  can  get  a  fair  idea  of  the  bias  of  the  book  from  the 
opening  paragraph  : 

It  is  the  Opinion  of  some,  though  't  is  but  an  Opinion,  and  but  of 
some  Learned  Men,  That  when  the  Sacred  Oracles  of  Heaven  assure 
us,  The  Things  under  the  Earth  are  some  of  those,  whose  Knees  are 
to  bow  in  the  Name  of  Jesus,  by  those  Things  are  meant  the  Inhabitants 
of  America,  who  are  Antipodes  to  those  of  the  other  Hemispheres, 
I  would  not  quote  any  words  of  Lactantius,  though  there  are  some 
to  countenance  this  Interpretation,  because  of  their  being  so  Ungeo- 
graphical :  nor  would  I  go  to  strengthen  the  Interpretation  by  reciting 
the  Words  of  the  Indians  to  the  first  White  Invaders  of  their  Terri 
tories,  We  hear  you  are  come  from  under  the  World,  to  take  our  World 
from  us.  But  granting  the  uncertainty  of  such  an  Exposition,  I  shall 
yet  give  the  Church  of  God  a  certain  account  of  these  Things,  which 
in  America  have  been  Believing  and  Adoring  the  glorious  Name  of 
Jesus ;  and  of  that  Country  in  America,  where  those  Things  have 
been  attended  with  Circumstances  most  remarkable. 

The  "  Magnalia  "  is  really  an  attempt  at  a  general  history 
of  New  England  from  1620  to  1698,  containing  classified 
material  on  the  governors,  magistrates,  and  preachers,  a  history 
of  Harvard,  a  collection  of  reports  of  church  transactions,  an 
account  of  the  Indian  Wars,  and  "A  Faithful  Record  of  many 
Illustrious  Wonderful  Providences."  Yet  for  historical  data  it  is 
^almost  as  unreliable  as  the  libelous  "  New  English  Canaan  " 
of  Thomas  Morton.  For  Morton  was  no  more  eager  to  turn 
the  facts  to  the  discredit  of  the  Puritans  than  Mather  was  to 
interpret  them  to  the  glory  of  the  Church ;  and  the  consequence 
was  that  neither  could  be  absolutely  trusted.  The  historians 
have  abandoned  Mather  as  a  safe  authority.  His  sin  has 
found  him  out,  even  though  he  committed  it  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord. 

The  man  in  this  period  in  whom  complete  faith  can  be  put 
is  Samuel  Sewall,  who  did  not  profess  to  be  an  author  except 
in  an  incidental  way.  He  lived  from  1652  to  1730  and  kept 


TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     33 

a  very  full  diary  from  1673  to  1729.  This  was  written  with 
no  thought  of  publication,  and  actually  was  not  printed  until  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  when  it  was  given  to  the  world 
by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  In  American  litera 
ture  Sewall's  Diary  occupies  a  place  almost  exactly  parallel  to  - 
that  of  John  Evelyn's  in  English  letters.  Their  lives  and  their 
long  diaries  covered  about  the  same  years,  and  they  held  cor 
responding  positions  in  the  communities.  Both  were  educated 
men  —  Sewall  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  —  and  both  were 
highly  respected  and  trusted.  Sewall  held  a  minor  position  at 
Harvard  connected  with  the  library,  was  prominent  in  church 
affairs,  and  was  a  judge,  officiating  at  the  time  of  the  Salem  ) 
witchcraft  trials.  An  informal  journal  written  without  prejudice,  s 
by  such  a  man  as  he,  gives  material  of  the  greatest  value  for 
a  picture  of  the  times.  It  is  material  of  course  and  not  the 
picture  itself,  for  it  lacks  anything  in  the  way  of  composition,  / 
just  as  do  the  facts  of  ordinary  daily  life  in  the  order  of  their 
occurrence.  But  out  of  it  two  main  threads  of  interest  may  be 
unwoven.  One  is  the  sober  but  not  unrelieved  background  of 
the  times,  itself  a  composite  of  various  strands.  Religion  was 
its  strongest  fiber.  Few  weeks  pass  in  which  there  is  no  record 
of  sermon,  fast,  christening,  wedding,  funeral,  or  special  cele 
bration.  These  were  among  the  chief  social  happenings  of  the 
calendar.  Funerals  as  well  as  more  festive  occasions  were 
accompanied  with  gifts  of  gloves  and  rings ;  refreshments 
were  ample  if  not  lavish  ;  and  the  bill  for  strong  drinks  was 
always  a  heavy  item,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  prohibition 
is  of  recent  origin,  and  that  among  the  Puritans  self-control 
made  drunkenness  as  infrequent  as  drinking  was  common. 
Against  frivolity  too  they  set  their  minds  ;  and  Sewall's  Diary 
gives  a  protest  at  "  tricks  "  and  dancing  and  May  festivals, 
and  even  Christmas  and  Easter,  which  were  triply  hated 
because  they  had  their  origins  in  pagan  tradition  and  had 
come  to  the  present  through  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the 
Church  of  England.  Yet  the  objections  to  these  practices  and 


34          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

festivals  show  that  they  were  real  disturbances  in  Sewall's 
Boston,  as  were  the  roistering  of  sailors  and  other  strangers 
in  town. 

The  other  and  more  important  thread  is  the  revelation  of 
the  inner  mind  of  a  flesh-and-blood  colonial  American.  It  takes 
patient  reading  to  recreate  the  real  man ;  but  he  is  here  in  these 
pages,  with  all  the  inconsistencies  that  make  up  life  out  of  story 
books.  He  was  all  in  all  a  fine,  devout,  broad-gauge  man — and 
this  is  what  any  biographer  would  tell  of  him — with  a  moderate 
supply  of  littleness  and  petty  vanity,  which  the  biographer  would 
be  almost  certain  to  suppress.  And  he  was  in  himself  a  record 
of  the  public  opinion  of  his  generation.  He  wrote  two  other 
things  besides  his  Dairy.  One  is  a  theological  treatise  which 
was  as  uninspired  as  the  quoted  paragraph  from  Mather's 
"  Magnalia,"  and  on  much  the  same  theme.  It  shows  him  to 
be  an  apparently  hopeless  old  fogy.  The  other  is  a  pamphlet 
called  "The  Selling  of  Joseph,"  which  was  probably  the  first 
,  antislavery  utterance  printed  in  America,  and  implies  that 
Samuel  Sewall  was  centuries  ahead  of  the  times.  There  is  at 
second  glance  nothing  perplexing  in  this  contradiction.  Sewall 
was  a  normal  man  who  stood  between  the  oldest-fashioned  and 
the  newest-fashioned  thinkers.  Sometimes  he  leaned  backward, 
and  sometimes  forward  ;  but  on  the  whole  he  was  inclined  to 
advance.  Of  this  he  gave  one  famous  proof.  Five  years  after 
the  Salem  trials  he  had  the  honesty  to  admit  to  himself  that 
he  had  been  all  wrong  in  his  judgment,  and  the  courage  to 
make  a  public  confession  of  his  repentance.  He  chose  one  of 
the  hardest  ways  of  doing  it.  Among  the  "  curious  punish 
ments  of  bygone  days,"  one  was  the  humiliation  of  disreputable 
persons  by  forcing  them  to  sit  at  the  foot  of  the  church  pulpit 
while  the  minister  read  a  public  reproof.  On  Fast  Day,  1697, 
Samuel  Sewall  of  his  own  choice  posted  a  bill  which  could 
be  read  by  any  who  would,  and,  giving  a  copy  of  it  to  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Willard,  stood  up  at  the  reading  before  the  con 
gregation.  The  method  of  atoning  for  his  mistake  proves  that 


TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     35 

he  was  still  a  devout  and  faithful  Puritan  worshiper,  but  the 
fact  that  he  did  so  at  all  shows  that  he  could  confess  errors, 
even  when  they  had  been  committed  in  behalf  of  the  Church. 
The  Mathers  could  neither  have  seen  nor  acknowledged  such 
mistakes.  They  were  too  cocksure  of  being  always  right. 
So  life  passed  on,  leaving  them  by  the  wayside ;  and  Samuel 
Sewall  was  with  the  quiet  majority  who  sadly  left  them  behind. 

A  third  representative  of  the  attitudes  of  mind  at  the  chang- 
ing  of  the  centuries  was  a  genial  woman,  Mrs.  Sarah  Kemble 
Knight  (1666-1727).  She  was  not  in  any  sense  a  public  figure, 
like  the  preachers  and  the  judge  just  mentioned,  nor  did  she 
pursue  the  habit  of  writing  a  continued  diary  like  Sewall's. 
Most  emphatically  she  was  not  given  to  the  unwholesome, 
recording,  like  many  other  women  in  her  day,  of  "  itineraries 
of  daily  religious  progress,  aggravated  by  overwork,  indigestion, 
and  a  gospel  of  gloom."  But  there  was  one  itinerary  which 
she  did  record  for  her  own  satisfaction  and  which  was  pub 
lished  more  than  a  century  later,  in  1825,  —  her  "Journal  of 
a  Journey  from  Boston  to  New  York  in  1704."  At  this  time 
a  vigorous  woman  of  thirty-eight,  a  wife  and  a  mother,  she 
set  out  alone  on  the  ten-day  journey,  taking  such  guides  as 
she  could  engage  from  one  stage  to  the  next.  The  hardships 
were  considerable  and  the  discomforts  and  inconveniences  very 
great ;  and  the  striking  fact  about  them  is  that  she  bore  up 
under  them  in  a  good-humored,  matter-of-fact,  sort  of  twentieth- 
century  way.  An  accident  was  an  accident  and  not  a  visitation 
from  on  high ;  a  disagreeable  or  churlish  or  even  a  dishonest 
person  was  somebody  to  be  put  up  with  and  not  to  be  moralized 
on  as  unscriptural.  The  worst  innkeeper  she  encountered  was 
a  man  to  avoid  in  the  future  rather  than  a  man  to  convert; 
she  did  not  seem  shocked  by  a  drunken  quarrel  late  one  night, 
but  she  was  annoyed,  because  she  wanted  to  go  to  sleep. 

She  was  at  times  positively  frivolous  and  irreverent  in  her 
allusions.  Crossing  a  river  one  day  she  was  very  near  to 
being  tipped  over. 


36          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  canoe  was  very  small  and  shallow,  so  that  when  we  were  in 
[it]  seemed  ready  to  take  in  water,  which  greatly  terrified  me,  and 
caused  me  to  be  very  circumspect,  sitting  with  my  hands  fast  on  each 
side,  my  eyes  steady,  not  daring  so  much  as  to  lodge  my  tongue  a 
hair's  breadth  more  on  one  side  of  my  mouth  than  t'other,  nor  so 
much  as  to  think  on  Lot's  wife ;  for  a  wry  thought  would  have 
overset  our  wherry. 

Her  jests  about  the  name  of  the  innkeeper,  Mr.  Devil,  would 
have  landed  her  in  the  stocks  had  she  made  them  publicly 
in  Boston. 

The  post  encouraged  me  by  saying  we  should  be  well  accommodated 
at  Mr.  Devil's,  a  few  miles  further;  but  I  questioned  whether  we  ought 
to  go  to  the  Devil  to  be  helped  out  of  affliction.  However,  like  the 
rest  of  the  deluded  souls  that  post  to  the  infernal  den,  we  made  all 
possible  speed  to  this  Devil's  habitation;  where,  alighting  in  good 
assurance  of  good  accommodations,  we  were  going  in. 

The  accommodations  turned  out  to  be  anything  but  good  ; 
and  she  left  her  host  with  a  sigh  of  relief,  and  the  thought  "  He 
differed  only  in  this  from  the  old  fellow  in  t'  other  country  — 
he  let  us  depart,"  following  the  observation  with  a  rimed  warn 
ing  for  subsequent  travelers  to  avoid  this  earthly  hell.  These 
are  quoted  not  because  they  are  admirable  or  worthy  of  imita 
tion  but  because  they  give  an  indication  of  what  was  going  on 
under  one  very  respectable  bonnet  when  Mrs.  Knight  was  sit 
ting  decorously  in  her  Boston  pew.  She  was  a  highly  respected 
woman  in  the  Puritan  community.  She  was  accustomed  to  its 
ways.  There  is  no  word  of  motherly  regret  that  she  was  away 
from  her  little  daughter  on  Christmas  Day,  for  Christmas  was 
not  a  festal  day  in  her  calendar.  Of  the  people  who  were 
coming  into  manhood  and  womanhood  when  Sarah  Kemble 
Knight  was  born,  Hawthorne  wrote  in  "  The  Scarlet  Letter  "  : 
"  The  generation  next  to  the  early  immigrants  wore  the  black 
est  shade  of  Puritanism,  and  so  darkened  the  national  visage 
with  it,  that  all  the  subsequent  years  have  not  sufficed  to  clear 
it  up.  We  have  yet  to  learn  again  the  forgotten  art  of  gayety." 


TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     37 

It  was  men  like  the  author  of  the  "  Magnalia  "  who  had 
darkened  the  national  visage,  but  women  here  and  there,  like 
the  writer  of  this  Journal,  who  had  already  returning  gleams  of 
gayety.  Of  the  three  people  whom  we  have  taken  as  types 
of  New-England  thought  at  this  period,  Cotton  Mather  may 
fairly  be  regarded  as  representing  the  faith  of  a  declining 
theology,  Samuel  Sewall  the  hope  of  a  broader  and  more 
generous  civic  attitude,  and  Mrs.  Knight  as  the  flicker  of 
charity  or  warm-hearted  and  genial  fellow-feeling  which  had 
been  almost  extinguished  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

CHAMBERLAIN,  N.  H.   Samuel  Sewall  and  the  World  he  Lived  in.   1897. 

COBB,  S.  H.    Rise  of  Religious  Liberty  in  America.    1902. 

DEXTER,  HENRY  M.  The  Congregationalism  of  the  Last  Three  Hun 
dred  Years  as  Seen  in  its  Literature.  With  a  bibliographical  appendix. 
1 880.  (An  excellent  history,  and  indispensable  for  its  bibliographical 
information.) 

EARLE,  ALICE  MORSE.    Child  Life  in  Colonial  Days.    1904. 

EARLE,  ALICE  MORSE.  Curious  Punishments  of  Bygone  Days.  1896 
and  1907. 

EARLE,  ALICE  MORSE.    Customs  and  Fashions  in  Old  New  England. 

1893- 

EARLE,  ALICE  MORSE.    Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days.    1898. 
EARLE,  ALICE  MORSE.    Stage-Coach  and  Tavern  Days.    1900. 
FISKE,  JOHN.    New  France  and  New  England,  chap.  v. 
MASSON,  DAVID.    Life  of  John  Milton.    1859-1880.    6  vols.   (Valuable 

for  the  English  backgrounds  of  Puritanism.) 
RICHARDSON,  C.  F.    American  Literature,  chap.  iv. 
TYLER,  M.  C.    A  History  of  American  Literature.     Colonial   Period. 

Vol.  I,  chaps,  xii,  xiii. 

WALKER,  W.    Ten  New  England  Leaders.    1901. 
WENDELL,  BARRETT.  Literary  History  of  America,  Bk.  I,  chap.  v.  1901 . 

Individual  Authors 

INCREASE  MATHER.  An  Essay  for  the  Recording  of  Illustrious  Provi 
dences.  1 684. 

Available  Edition 

With  introductory  preface  by  George  Offor.    London,  1890. 


38          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  199-216. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  p.  59. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    A   Library  of  American    Literature, 

Vol.  II,  pp.  75-106. 

COTTON  MATHER.    The  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World.    1693.    Mag- 
nalia  Christ!  Americana:    or,   The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  New 
England,  1620-1698.    1702. 
Available  Editions 

Magnalia.    With  notes,  translations,  and  life.    1853. 
The  Wonders,  etc.    Reprints,  Cambridge,  1861,  1862. 
Biography  and  Criticism 

MARVIN,  Rev.  A.  P.    The  Life  and  Times  of  Cotton  Mather.    1892. 
PARRINGTON,  V.   L.     Cambridge  History  of  American   Literature. 

Vol.  I,  Bk.  I,  in  chap  iii. 
SPRAGUE,  W.  B.    Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,  Vol.  I,  pp.  189-195. 

1857- 
TYLER,  M.  C.    History  of  American   Literature.    Colonial  Period. 

Vol.  I,  chaps,  xii,  xiii. 
Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  217-237. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  59-66. 

STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.   Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  114-166. 

SAMUEL  SEWALL.    Diary  from  1673  to  1 729.   The  only  edition  is  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Ser.5,  Vols.  VI- VIII. 
Collections 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  238-251. 

STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.   Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II, 

pp.  188-200. 
History  and  Criticism 

CHAMBERLAIN,  N.  H.    (See  General  References.) 
TYLER,  M.  C.    (See  General  References.) 

SARAH   KEMBLE   KNIGHT.    Journals  of  Madame  Knight.    From  the 
original  manuscripts  written  in  1704.    T.  Dwight,  editor.    1825. 
Available  Editions 

A  Reprint,  Albany,  1865. 
A  Reprint,  Norwich,  Conn.,  1901. 
Collection 

STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  248-264. 


TRANSITION  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     39 

History  and  Criticism 

TYLER,  M.  C.    (See  General  References.) 

Literary  Treatment  of  the  Period 
Drama 

BARKER,  J.  N.    Superstition,   a   Tragedy  (1824),   in   Representative 

American  Plays  (edited  by  A.  H.  Quinn).    1917. 
LONGFELLOW,  H.  W.    The  New  England  Tragedies. 
WILKINS,  MARY  E.    Giles  Corey,  Yeoman. 

Essays  • 

LOWELL,  J.  R.   Witchcraft.  Works,  Vol.  V. 

WHITTIER,  J.  G.    Charms  and  Fairy  Faith,  and  Magicians  and  Witch 
Folk  in  Literary  Recreations  and  Miscellanies. 

Fiction 

AUSTIN,  MRS.  J.  G.    A  Nameless  Nobleman. 

AUSTIN,  MRS.  J.  G.    Dr.  Le  Baron  and  his  Daughter  (sequel). 

COOPER,  J.  F.    The  Wept  of  Wish-ton-Wish. 

SIMMS,  W.  GILMORE.    The  Yemassee. 

WILKINS,  MARY  E.   The  Heart's  Highway. 

Poetry 

Poems  of  American  History  (edited  by  B.  E.  Stevenson),  pp.  71-97. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  introduction  to  the  "  Magnalia "  or  a  chapter  from 
"  Illustrious  Providences,"  or  "The  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World," 
for  evidence  of  superstition  based  on  Scriptural  authority  and  of 
vulgar,  or  folk,  superstition. 

In  the  Nation  of  August  17,  1918,  pp.  173-175,  there  is  an 
article  in  review  of  five  new  books  under  the  title  "  Spirit  Communi 
cation."  Establish  the  differences  and  the  likenesses  between  the 
modern  attitude  and  the  attitude  of  the  seventeenth  century  toward 
"  the  invisible  world." 

Read  Fitz-Greene  Halleck's  "  Connecticut,"  stanzas  xiii-xxvi,  and 
Whittier's  "The  Double-Headed  Snake  of  Newbury,"  11.  71-85,  as 
well  as  Irving's  "  The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow  "  (see  p.  129  in  this 
volume),  for  typical  literary  expressions  of  aversion  to  Cotton  Mather. 

The  best  method  of  approaching  Samuel  Sewall's  Diary  is  to  read 
some  fifty  pages  —  preferably  between  1680  and  1710  —  for  the 
references  to  a  definite  topic.  This  may  best  be  selected  from  prom 
ising  suggestions  in  the  first  few  pages  of  reading.  If  none  appears, 


40          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

look  for  any  of  the  following  or  others  like  them :  Sunday  observ 
ance  ;  funerals,  weddings,  and  christenings ;  the  pastor  and  his 
people;  holidays;  parents  and  children;  self-analysis;  religious  dis 
cipline  ;  law  and  order.  Comparisons  on  a  given  topic  with  the 
entries  for  the  same  period  in  Evelyn  or  for  an  equal  number  of 
pages  in  Pepys  are  fruitful. 

A  similar  approach  may  be  made  to  Mrs.  Knight's  compact  and 
consecutive  Journal.  Her  humor,  irreverence,  tolerance,  independ 
ence,  timidity,  or  her  use  of  exaggeration,  mock-heroics,  Scriptural 
allusion,  personal  description,  social  analysis,  are  rich  in  their 
possibilities. 

Read  in  Andrew  Macphail's  "  Essays  in  Puritanism "  the  essay 
on  John  Winthrop,  and  then  the  exchange  of  opinions  between 
Messrs.  White  and  Hackett  in  the  New  Republic,  May  17,  1919. 
Do  either  or  both  throw  light  on  the  chief  characters  discussed 
in  this  chapter? 


CHAPTER  IV 

JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

The  danger  in  drawing  conclusions  about  a  whole  century, 
as  we  have  been  doing,  is  that  the  facts  may  be  forced  to  seem 
far  simpler  than  they  were.  It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that 
these  are  only  certain  broad  currents  of  thought,  tendencies 
which  were  obscured  by  all  sorts  of  cross  waves  and  chop  seas. 
And  it  should  be  mentioned  that  the  Puritan  with  the  greatest 
mind  of  them  all,  Jonathan  Edwards,  was  only  a  year  old  when 
Mrs.  Knight  made  her  journey  to  New  York,  and  that  to  th( 
end  of  his  life,  in  1758,  he  struggled  in  vain  to  keep  alive 
the  logic  of  the  old  religious  doctrines. 

He  was  born  in  1703  with  a  rich  heritage  from  the  learned 
aristocracy.  As  a  youth  he  showed  extraordinary  precocity, 
which  appeared  in  his  early  excursions  into  philosophy  and 
natural  science  and  developed  further  in  the  unfulfilled  promise 
of  religious  radicalism. 

From  my  childhood  up,  my  mind  had  been  full  of  objections  against 
the  doctrine  of  God's  sovereignty,  in  choosing  whom  he  would  to 
eternal  life,  and  rejecting  whom  he  pleased ;  leaving  them  eternally 
to  perish,  and  be  everlastingly  tormented  in  hell.  It  used  to  appear 
like  a  horrible  doctrine  to  me.  But  I  remember  the  time  very  well, 
when  I  seemed  to  be  convinced,  and  fully  satisfied,  as  to  this  sover 
eignty  of  God.  ...  I  have  often,  since  that  first  conviction,  had  quite 
another  kind  of  sense  of  God's  sovereignty  than  I  had  then.  I  have 
often  since  had  not  only  a  conviction,  but  a  delightful  conviction.  The 
doctrine  has  very  often  appeared  exceedingly  pleasant,  bright,  and 
sweet.  Absolute  sovereignty  is  what  I  love  to  ascribe  to  God.  But 
my  first  conviction  was  not  so. 

The  first  instance  that  I  remember  of  that  sort  of  inward,  sweet  de 
light  in  God  and  divine  things  that  I  have  lived  much  in  since,  was  on 

41 


Lonpitode  We«t   71*      from  Greenwich 


POINTS   OF   LITERARY   INTEREST  IN    NEW   ENGLAND 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     43 

reading  those  words,  i  Tim.  i.  1 7,  Now  unto  the  King  eternal,  immortal, 
invisible,  the  only  wise  God,  be  honor  and  glory  for  ever  and  ever,  Amen. 
As  I  read  the  words,  there  came  into  my  soul,  and  was  as  it  were 
diffused  through  it,  a  sense  of  the  glory  of  the  Divine  Being.  .  .  . 

Not  long  after  I  first  began  to  experience  these  things,  I  gave  an 
account  to  my  father  of  some  things  that  had  passed  in  my  mind.  I 
was  pretty  much  affected  by  the  discourse  we  had  together ;  and  when 
the  discourse  was  ended,  I  walked  abroad  alone,  in  a  solitary  place  in 
my  father's  pasture,  for  contemplation.  And  as  I  was  walking  there, 
and  looking  up  on  the  sky  and  clouds,  there  came  into  my  mind  so 
sweet  a  sense  of  the  glorious  majesty  and  grace  of  God,  that  I  know 
not  how  to  express.  I  seemed  to  see  them  both  in  a  sweet  conjunc 
tion  ;  majesty  and  meekness  joined  together ;  it  was  a  sweet  and 
gentle,  and  holy  majesty;  and  also  a  majestic  meekness;  an  awful 
sweetness ;  a  high,  and  great,  and  holy  gentleness. 

The  striking  fact  about  Edwards's  later  development,  however, 
is  that  he  passed  entirely  from  poetic  mysticism  to  a  champion 
ship  of  the  theology  of  Calvin.  His  great  period  of  influence 
was  during  his  pastorate  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  from 
1727  to  1750,  and  during  his  following  six  years  at  Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts.  He  was  a  preacher  of  extraordinary  power —  the 
more  extraordinary  because  his  command  of  audiences  was  ob 
tained  by  the  sheer  quality  of  his  discourse  and  not,  as  in  the  case 
of  John  Cotton  and  the  Mathers,  by  pulpit  presence  or  flights  of 
eloquence.  His  sermons  were  at  once  irresistible  in  their  logic 
(provided  his  auditors  were  willing  to  start  with  his  assumptions) 
and,  at  the  same  time,  irresistibly  cogent  in  their  simple,  concrete 
methods  of  illustration.  His  most  famous  discourse,  "  Sinners* 
in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God,"  is  a  complete  illustration  of 
his  method.  Notwithstanding  his  sincerity  and  his  talents  as 
a  preacher  his  ministerial  experience  was  ended  with  a  tragic 
downfall.  His  parishioners  could  not  endure  the  rigor  of  his 
teachings,  agreeing  perversely  with  Dr.  Johnson's  later  dictum 
on  his  "  Freedom  of  the  Will " — that  all  theory  might  be  for 
it  but  all  experience  was  against  it.  During  his  residence  in 
Stockbridge  he  continued  with  the  writing  of  discourses  which 


44          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

philosophers  have  agreed  at  once  to  applaud  and  reject.  He 
died  in  1758  shortly  after  his  inauguration  as  president  of  the 
College  of  New  Jersey. 

His  failure  lay  in  the  fact  that  his  religion  was  a  religion  of 
logic  rather  than  of  faith.  It  was  based  on  what  learned  men 
had  theorized  ouTfrom  the  Bible,  and  in  a  great  many  cases 
from  the  least  important  passages  of  the  Bible,  and  it  sternly 
rejected  what  many  other  equally  learned  men  had  found  in  the 
same  book.  Moreover,  it  was  concerned  with  life  on  earth 
chiefly  as  a  prelude  to  a  future  life  of  reward  or  punishment. 
In  all  the  tide  of  human  event  which  was  making  the  eighteenth 
century  each  year  more  interesting  as  a  matter  of  present  living, 
men  could  not  go  on  indefinitely  looking  everywhere  but  at  life 
itself.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  summed  up  the  situation  in  his 
"Wonderful  '  One-Hoss  Shay'  "  (see  p.  305).  This  is  a  pleasant 
story  for  children,  but  a  comment  on  life  for  grown-ups ;  and 
to  the  grown-ups  Holmes  addressed  his  concluding  couplet: 

End  of  the  wonderful  one-hoss  shay : 
Logic  is  logic.    That 's  all  I  say. 

Benjamin  Franklin  (1706-1790)  is  the  man  who  reflected 
better  and  earlier  than  other  Americans  the  complete  change 
from  the  Puritan  point  of  view  —  reflecting  it  so  unqualifiedly 
that  he  must  be  understood  as  an  extreme  case  and  not  a  typ 
ical  one.  In  education  and  character  he  offered  a  succession  of 
contrasts  to  the  leaders  of  seventeenth-century  New  England. 
He  did  not  come  of  a  cultured  family ;  he  was  not  a  college 
man ;  he  did  not  enter  any  of  the  learned  professions — ministry, 
law,  or  teaching ;  he  was  not  an  active  supporter  of  the  church ; 
he  did  not  live  in  the  New  England  where  he  was  born.  In 
fact  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  act  on  the  much-quoted  principle, 
"  Boston  is  a  very  good  place  —  to  come  from." 

FYanklin  was  born  in  Boston  in  1 706,  the  youngest  son  of  a 
tallow-chandler  and  the  fifteenth  of  seventeen  children.  He  was 
industrious  and  bookish  as  a  boy,  and  before  he  was  seventeen 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     45 

years  old  he  had  trained  himself  to  write  in  the  fashion  of  the 
English  essayist  Joseph  Addison,  had  been  apprenticed  in  his 
brother's  printing  shop,  and  had  written  many  articles  pub 
lished  in  his  brother's  paper,  The  New  England  Cour ant.  In 
1723,  as  the  result  of  troubles  with  his  brother,  he  ran  away  to 
Philadelphia.  From  there  he  went  to  London  for  two  years, 
on  the  promise  of  the  irresponsible  Governor  Keith  to  set  him 
up  in  the  printing  business  on  his  return.  The  failure  of  the 
governor  to  keep  his  word  did  him  no  harm  in  the  end,  for  he 
established  his  own  printing  house  in  1728,  and  in  1748,  at 
the  age  of  forty-two,  he  was  able  to  retire  with  a  moderate 
fortune.  .  During  this  time  he  had  not  only  succeeded  in 
Philadelphia  but  had  combined  with  partners  in  New  York, 
Newport,  Lancaster  (Pennsylvania),  Charleston  (South  Carolina), 
Kingston,  Jamaica,  and  Antigua. 

The  activities  of  his  life  were  so  crowded  and  interwoven 
that  they  .may  best  be  summarized  under  a  few  simple  heads. 
As  a  public-spirited  citizen  of  Philadelphia  he  organized  a  de 
bating  society,  the  Junto,  in  1727  ;  published  The  Pennsylvania 
Gazette  in  1729;  founded  the  first  circulating  library  in  America 
in  1731  ;  cbnducted  Poor  Richard's  Almanac  from  1732  -to 
1 748  ;  organized  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in  1 744  ; 
and  in  1749  founded  the  academy  which  developed  into  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  As  an  inventor  he  perfected  the 
Franklin  stove  in  1742  and  contrived  methods  of  street  paving 
and  lighting  which  were  widely  adopted.  As  a  scientist  he 
proved  the  identity  of  lightning  and  electricity  in  1752,  and 
went  on -from  that  to  further  investigations  which  sooner  or 
later  brought  him  election  to  the  Royal  Academy  of  London 
and  their  Copley  gold  medal,  an  appointment  as  one  of  the 
eight  foreign  associates  of  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences, 
and  medals  and  diplomas  from  other  societies  in  St.  Petersburg} 
Madrid,,  Edinburgh,  Padua,,  and  Turin.  As  a  holder  of  public 
trusts  and  offices  he  became  clerk  of  the  Assembly  of  Penn 
sylvania  in  1736  ;  postmaster  of  Philadelphia  in  1737  ;  deputy 


46          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

postmaster-general  of  the  colonies  in  1753  ;  commissioner  from 
Pennsylvania  to  the  Albany  Congress  in  1754  ;  colonial  agent 
to  London  from  Pennsylvania  in  1757  and  1764  and  for 
Massachusetts  in  1770  ;  one  of  the  framers  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  ;  minister  to  the  French  court  from  the  United 
States  in  1778;  a  signer  of  the  Peace  Articles  in  1783;  presi 
dent  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  in  1785-1787;  and 
a  framer  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Such  a  cata 
logue  is  not  a  thing  to  be  exactly  memorized.  Its  value  is  like 
that  of  an  entry  in  "  Who's  Who  in  America  "  —  it  should  be 
referred  to  when  needed.  Yet  it  is  worth'  reading  and  rereading 
as  an  evidence  of  the  almost  unparalleled  variety  and  usefulness 
of  occupations  which  filled  this 'man's  life. 

Usefulness  is,  without  question,  the  idea  which  Franklin  most 
emphasized  in  his  writings  and  exemplified  in  his  conduct.  In 
comparison  with  the  Puritan  fathers  he  was  more  interested  in 
the  eighteenth  century  than  in  eternity,  more  actively  concerned 
with  Philadelphia  and  Pennsylvania  and  the  United  States  of 
America  than  with  the  mansions  prepared  above.  This  atti 
tude  of  mind  was  not  a  freakish  or  accidental  one ;  it  can  be 
accounted  for  in  the  influences  which  affected  him  when  he 
was  a  boy  and  in  the  kind  of  English  and  American  thinking 
which  characterized  his  whole  century. 

He  came  of  what  he  himself  called  an  "  obscure  family,"  his 
ancestors  in  the  near  generations  having  been  hard-working,  in 
telligent  English  clerks  and  artisans.  They  were  nonconformists, 
and  independent  enough  to  take  their  chances  in  the  new  world 
for  the  sake  of  liberty  of  conscience.  But  the  lesson  that  he 
learned  from  his  parents  was  rather  more  practical  than  theo 
logical  and  was,  perhaps  unconsciously,  attested  to  in  the  epi 
taph  which  he  wrote  for  them.  At  two  points  in  it  he  recorded 
his  belief  that  God  helps  them  who  help  themselves,  laying 
special  stress  on  the  degree  to  which  they  help  themselves : 

By  constant  labor  and  industry, 
With  God's  blessing, 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     47 

he  says,  and  again  : 

Be  encouraged  to  diligence  in  thy  calling 
And  distrust  not  Providence. 

Cotton  Mather,  whom  Franklin  quoted  with  respect,  would 
have  reversed  the  ideas  in  order  and  importance ;  but  it  was 
Cotton  Mather's  "  Essays  to  Qo  Good  "  that  Franklin  quoted, 
and  his  ability  to  draw  a  practical  inference  from  some  slight 
event  ("  Be  not  too  proud,"  he  said,  when  he  bumped  his  head 
against  a  beam),  and  not  any  of  his  sermons.  Franklin's  early 
reading  was  almost  wholly  in  the  field  of  what  might  be  cal 
common-sense  literature  - — discussions  of  different  aspects  0 
daily  life  and  how  to  get  on  in  it.  He  read  "  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
which  of  all  religious  books  is  one  of  the  most  definite  on 
questions  of  earthly  conduct.  He  read  a  great  deal  of  history 
and  biography :  Defoe  "  Upon  Projects,"  Locke  "  Concerning 
Human  Understanding"  and  "The  Art  of  Thinking,"  and 
Addison  on  all  the  common-sense  subjects  that  make  up  the 
contents  of  the  Spectator.  He  read  the  rimed  "  Essays  "  of 
Alexander  Pope,  too,  using  a  quotation  from  one  of  them  to 
confirm  his  belief  in  a  system  of  arguing  by  means  of  asking 
questions,  which  is  known  as  the  "  Socratic  method." 

In  a  word,  he  filled  his  boyish  mind  with  the  special  kind 
of  writing  which  belonged  to  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  in  England,  and  this  was  exactly  the  kind  to  be  valua 
ble  to  a  youth  who  was  destined  to  work  his  way  unaided  to 
prosperity.  For  this  period  was  a  particularly  prosaic  and 
practical  one.  In  the  two  generations  just  gone  England 
had  passed  through  the  Puritan  uprising  against  Charles  I,  the 
return  of  the  Stuarts  to  the  throne,  and  the  further  rebellion 
against  James  II.  Religious  enthusiasm  had  risen  to  its  height 
in  the  middle  of  the  century,  but  had  already  waned  by  the 
years  when  John  Milton  received  only  ten  pounds  for  the  manu 
script  of  "  Paradise  Lost."  By  the  end  of  the  century  poli 
tics  had  definitely  overthrown  religion  as  a  subject  of  popular 


48          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

discussion.  Little  newspapers  had  sprung  up  in  surprising  num 
bers,  the  coffeehouses  had  provided  centers  for  conversation, 
and  a  common-sense  age  was  settling  down  to  a  rather  sordid 
and  common-sense  existence.  Sometimes  under  the  impulse 
of  a  world  movement  a  few  leaders  of  thought  have  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  actually  molding  the  character  of  the  period  in 
which  they  live,  but  in  less  inspiring  times  the  popular  writers 
produce  just  about  ''what  the  public  wants."  The  period  of 
Franklin's  youth  was  one  of  the  latter  kind,  and  Addison,  Pope, 
and  their  followers  were  writing  for  a  public  who  wanted  to 
keep  on  the  surface  of  life.  It  was  as  if  the  people  had  said : 
"  All  this  religious  zeal  of  the  last  century  only  made  England 
uncomfortable.  Just  see  what  confusion  it  threw  us  into  !  Now 
we  are  back  about  where  we  were  when  the  trouble  started. 
Let 's  be  sensible  and  stick  to  facts,  and  stop  quarreling  with 
each  other."  So  the  populace,  who  began  reading  in  greater 
numbers  than  ever  before,  read  the  little  newspapers ;  and  the 
various  groups  of  congenial  people  talked  things  over  in  the 
coffeehouses ;  and  Addison  made  it  his  ambition  to  bring 
"philosophy"  (by  which  he  meant  a  simple  theory  of  everyday 
living)  down  from  the  clouds  and  into  the  field  of  ordinary 
thinking.  The  plays  of  Shakespeare  would  have  helped  Frank 
lin  very  little  in  the  early  stages  of  the  printing  business ;  so 
would  the  poems  of  Milton ;  but  the  essays  of  Addison,  Pope, 
and  Defoe  made  for  him  what  would  be  called  to-day  "  excel 
lent  vocational  reading."  And  he  profited  by  it  to  the  limit. 

Moreover,  if  literature  helped  to  make  him  a  good  printer, 
printing  was  no  less  helpful  toward  making  him  a  good  writer. 
There  are  few  trades  or  crafts  which  demand  so  high  a  degree 
of  accuracy.  A  boy  or  girl  who  achieves  a  grade  of  95  per  cent 
in  any  study,  even  in  mathematics,  is  well  above  the  average ; 
but  a  typesetter  or  proofreader  who  avoids  error  in  only  nine 
teen  out  of  every  twenty  operations  will  have  a'  short  career  in 
any  printing  house.  Most  people  do  not  know  of  the  extreme 
care  which  is  given  to  assure  correctness  in  the  simplest 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     49 

product  which  is  put  into  type.  A  textbook,  for  example,  after 
being  written,  revised,  recopied,  and  revised  is  criticized  by 
a  special  expert  and  once  more  revised  before  the  publisher's 
editor  goes  over  it  word  by  word.  Then  when  it  goes  to  the 
printer  it  is  set  up  in  long  strips,  or  galleys,  from  these  into 
pages  (still  in  type),  and  from  these  is  cast  into  plates,  and 
after  each  of  these  three  operations  is  read  over  with  micro 
scopic  care  by  both  an  editorial  proofreader  and  the  author. 
During  the  printing  experience  a  liberal  allowance  is  made  to 
the  author  for  actual  changes  from  his  original  copy,  but  the 
printer  is  held  responsible  for  any  slightest  departure  from 
the  manuscript  that  is  supplied  him.  The  boy  who,  like 
Franklin,  has  spent  some  years  in  the  printing  room  and  the 
editorial  office  has  received  a  discipline  which  is  miles  beyond 
that  which  can  ever  be  given  in  any  school  or  college 
composition  course.1 

To  this  important  training  Franklin  added  a  conscious 
attempt  to  develop  his  own  powers.  Printing  a$d  the  love 
of  books  led  the  horse  to  water,  but  his  desire  for  self- 
expression  made  him  drink.  Of  this  he  tells  in  an  early  pas 
sage  of  the  "  Autobiography."  His  daily  work  had  taught  him 
to  spell  and  punctuate  correctly,  but  he  was  faulty  in  choice 
of  words  and  in  "perspicuity,"  or  clearness  of  construction. 
So  he  took  Addison's  Spectator  as  his  model,  put  paragraphs 
into  his  own  words,  then  tried  to  set  them  back  into  the 
original  form,  compared  the  two  products,  and  made  up  his 
mind  wherein  Addison's  versions  were  better  than  his  and 
wherein,  as  he  sometimes  thought,  his  were  better  than  his 
teacher's.  He  also  followed  up  the  art  of  discussion  both  in 
speech  and  in  writing,  making  it  always  a  point  to  convince 
his  opponents  without  antagonizing  them.  These  things  he 
did,  not  in  order  to  become  a  professional  writer  but  solely 

1  This  same  discipline  was  enjoyed  —  among  later  American  authors  —  by 
Mark  Twain,  Bret  Harte,  William  Dean  Howells,  and  Walt  Whitman,  all  of 
whom  were  scrupulously  careful  writers. 


50          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

in  order  to  utter  or  write  his  ideas  to  the  best  effect.  "  It  has 
ever  since,"  he  says,  "been  a  pleasure  to  me  to  see  good 
workmen  handle  their  tools ;  and  it  has  been  useful  to  me, 
having  learned  so  much  by  it  as  to  be  able  to  do  little  jobs 
myself."  Prose  writing  was  simply  a  tool  for  him  —  the  most 
useful  one  that  he  ever  mastered  and,  as  he  says  elsewhere, 
the  principal  means  of  his  advancement. 

As  long  as  he  was  a  printer  (until  he  was  forty-two  years 
old)  he  employed  his  prose  composition  in  writing  copy  which 
was  clear  and  interesting  and  therefore  salable  —  chiefly  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  and  in  Poor  Richard '  s  Almanac ; 
but  during  and  after  that  time  he  put  his  powers  to  even 
greater  use  as  a  speaker  and  as  a  writer  of  articles  and 
pamphlets  on  affairs  of  public  interest.  He  was  almost  always 
simple,  definite,  and  practical,  for  he  wrote  to  the  mass  of 
people  with  little  education.  He  realized  that  if  he  was  to 
bring  his  points  home  to  them  he  must  not  write  "  over  their 
heads,"  and  that  he  must  appeal  to  their  common  sense  and 
their  self-interest ;  and  he  was  invariably  good-humored,  for 
he  knew  that  good  humor  makes  more  friends  than  enemies. 

Out  of  the  great  mass  of  Franklin's  published  writings  — 
and  they  run  to  a  dozen  large  volumes  —  two  deserve  special 
attention  as  pieces  of  American  literature  :  Poor  Richard's 
Almanac  and  the  "Autobiography."  The  former  of  these 
was  a  commercial  undertaking ;  it  was  written  to  sell.  The 
almanac,  an  annual  publication  of  which  the  calendar  was  a  very 
small  part,  had  been  popular  in  England  and  America  for  many 
generations  before  Franklin  started  his  own..  It  preceded  the 
newspaper  and  until  1 800,  or  even  later,  reached  a  wider  public. 
The  second  piece  of  printing  in  this  country  was  Pierce  s 
Almanack,  printed  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  in  1639. 
Others  followed:  in  Boston,  1676;  in  Philadelphia,  1676;  in 
New  York,  1697;  in  Rhode  Island,  1728;  and  in  Virginia, 
1731.  There  had  been,  however,  only  one  great  almanac  editor 
to  precede  Franklin  in  America — Nathaniel  Ames,  who  began 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     51 

publishing  his  series  in  Dedham,  Massachusetts,  in  1726. 
Besides  the  calendar,  the  astronomical  data  for  the  year,  and 
the  half-jocular  weather  predictions,  the  chief  feature  of  Ames's 
was  the  poetry,  very  considerable  in  bulk,  and  the  "  interlined 
wit  and  humor/'  which  was  brief  and  usually  rather  pointless. 
Franklin,  realizing  the  fondness  of  his  generation  for  the  wise 
sayings  of  which  Alexander  Pope  was  then  the  master-hand 
in  the  English-speaking  world,  dropped  the  poetry  and  studied 
to  expand  the  interlined  material  of  Ames  into  the  chief  con 
tribution  of  his  "  Richard  Saunders."  "  I  endeavored  to  make 
it  both  entertaining  and  useful,"  he  said  in  the  "  Autobiog 
raphy,"  "and  it  accordingly  came  to  be  in  such  demand,  that 
I  reaped  considerable  profit  from  it ;  vending  annually  near 
ten  thousand.  And  observing  that  it  was  generally  read, 
scarce  any  neighborhood  in  the  province  being  without  it, 
I  considered  it  as  a  proper  vehicle  for  conveying  instruction 
among  the  common  people,  who  bought  scarcely  any  other 
books.  I  therefore  filled  all  the  little  spaces,  that  occurred 
between  the  remarkable  days  in  the  Calendar  with  proverbial 
sentences,  chiefly  such  as  inculcated  industry  and  frugality,  as 
the  means  of  procuring  wealth,  and  thereby  securing  virtue  ;  it 
being  more  difficult  for  a  man  in  want,  to  act  always  honestly, 
as,  to  use  here  one  of  those  proverbs,  it  is  hard  for  an  empty 
sack  to  stand  upright" 

In  the  Almanac  of  1757  he  collected  the  sayings  of  the  last 
twenty-five  years  into  a  timely  essay  on  "  The  Way  to  Wealth," 
making  an  old  man  deliver  a  speech  filled  with  quotations  from 
"  Poor  Richard."  This  contained  not  only  sound  practical  advice 
for  any  time  but  was  also  pertinent  to  a  political  issue  of  the 
moment,  and  so  applied  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  all  the  people 
in  it.  It  was  reprinted  by  itself  and  had  an  immense  circula 
tion  in  .America  and  abroad,  in  the  original  and  in  several 
translations.  Very  likely  since  "The  Day  of  Doom,"  in  1662, 
nothing  had  been  so  influential  in  the  colonies  as  "  The  Way 
to  Wealth,"  in  1757;'  and  no  contrast  could  better  indicate 


52          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

the  change  that  had  taken  place  between  those  two  dates. 
Said  Father  Abraham,  the  old  speaker : 

It  would  be  thought  a  hard  Government  that  should  tax  its  People 
one-tenth  Part  of  their  Time,  to  be  employed  in  its  Service.  But  Idle 
ness  taxes  many  of  us  much  more,  if  we  reckon  all  that  is  spent  in 
absolute  Sloth,  or  doing  of  nothing,  with  that  which  is  spent  in  idle 
Employments  or  Amusements,  that  amount  to  nothing.  Sloth,  by 
bringing  on  Diseases,  absolutely  shortens  Life.  Sloth,  like  rust,  con 
sumes  faster  than  Labour  wears;  while  the  used  Key,  is  always  bright, 
as  Poor  Richard  says.  But  dost  thou  love  life,  then  do  not  squander 
Time,  for  that 's  the  stuff  Life  is  made  of,  as  Poor  Richard  says.  How 
much  more  than  is  necessary  do  we  spend  in  sleep,  forgetting  that 
The  sleeping  Fox  catches  no  Poultry,  and  that  There  will  be  sleeping 
\  enough  in  the  Grave,  as  Poor  Richard  says. 

This  was  the  sort  of  workaday  advice  that  was  shouldering 
the  old-time  theology  into  modest  Sabbath-day  retirement. 

Franklin's  "Autobiography"  is  the  greatest  of  his  writings  if 
not  the  greatest  of  all  his  achievements.  "  Poor  Richard  "  and 
"The  Way  to  Wealth"  are  full  of  good  common  sense,  but  they 
belong  only  to  the  "  efficiency  "  school  of  ideas  and  morality ; 
they  are  neither  distinguished  in  form  nor  inspiring  in  content, 
and  they  are  chiefly  interesting  because  they  so  well  mirror  what 
was  in  the  eighteenth-century  mind.  The  "Autobiography" 
has  a  larger  claim  to  attention  than  these,  for  by  general  consent 
it  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  great  classics  of  litera 
ture.  Several  features  have  combined  to  make  it  deserve  this 
high  place.  Simply  stated  they  are  all  nothing  more  than  ways 
of  explaining  that  this  book  is  the  simple,  definite,  honest  life- 
story  of  an  eminent  man,  as  he  recalled  it  in  his  old  age. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  simple  and  uncalculated.  'It  was  not 
composed,  like  "  Poor  Richard,"  to  sell,  nor,  like  many  of 
Franklin's  speeches  and  pamphlets,  to  convince  by  skillful  argu 
ment.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Franklin  did  not  want  to  write  it 
at  all,  and  consented  only  when  the  insistence  of  his  friends 
and  relatives  made  it  easier  to  do  it  than  to  leave  it  undone. 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     53 

Moreover,  he  dropped  it  for  the  thirteen  years  from  1771  to 
.1784,  took  it  up  again  when  wearied,  old,  and  ill,  and  left  it  at 
his  death  hardly  more  than  well  started,  with  all  the  most  cele 
brated  part  of  his  life  still  to  be  recounted.  It  is  simple  there 
fore  because  it  was  done  with  no  desire  to  create  an  impression 
or  td  be  "  literary,"  and  is  the  unadorned  narrative  of  an  old 
man  familiarly  told  to  those  who  knew  him  best. 

For  the  same  reason  it  is  definite  and  homely  in  what  he 
chose  to  record.  It  is  the  "  little,  nameless,  unremembered  " 
episodes  not  set  down  in  more  pretentious  histories  for  which 
the  "  Autobiography  "  is  itself  best  remembered.  Some  of  the 
details  make  real  the  conditions  of  living  in  those  simple  times 
—  the  invention  of  the  stove  named  after  him,  the  improvements 
in  street  lighting  and  paving,  the  organization  of  a  fire  company. 
Others  are  typical  of  human  nature  in  any  age,  as  his  portrait 
of  the  croaker,  Samuel  Mickle,  who  sadly  predicted  Franklin's 
failure  as  a  printer,  or  as  his  jocular  account  of  the  entrance 
of  luxury  into  his  own  household. 

We  have  an  English  proverb  that  says,  He  that  would  thrive,  mtist 
ask  his  wife.  It  was  lucky  for  me  th&t  I  had  one  as  much  disposed 
to  industry  and  frugality  as  myself.  She  assisted  me  cheerfully  in  my 
business,  folding  and  stitching  pamphlets,  tending  shop,  purchasing 
old  linen  rags  for  the  paper-makers,  etc.,  etc.  We  kept  no  idle  servants, 
our  table  was  plain  and  simple,  our  furniture  of  the  cheapest.  For 
instance,  my  breakfast  was  a  long  time  bread  and  milk  (no  tea),  and 
I  ate  it  out  of  a  twopenny  earthen  porringer,  with  a  pewter  spoon. 
But  mark  how  luxury  will  enter  families,  and  make  a  progress,  in  spite 
of  principle :  being  called  one  morning  to  breakfast,  I  found  it  in  a 
China  bowl,  with  a  spoon  of  silver !  They  had  been  bought  for  me 
without  my  knowledge  by  my  wife,  and  had  cost  her  the  enormous 
sum  of  three  and  twenty  shillings,  for  which  she  had  no  other  excuse 
or  apology  to  make,  but  that  she  thought  her  husband  deserved  a  silver 
spoon  and  China  bowl  as  well  as  any  of  his  neighbors.  This  was  the 
first  appearance  of  plate  and  China  in  our  house,  which  afterward  in 
a  course  of  years,  as  our  wealth  increased,  augmented  gradually  to 
several  hundred  pounds  in  value. 


54          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Many  and  many  of  the  simplest  episodes  reveal  how  shrewd, 
penetrating,  and,  above  all,  how  clear  headed  he  invariably  was. 
Such,  for  example,  was  the  hour  when  he  was  listening  to  the 
great  evangelist,  Whitefield,  and  while  all  his  other  auditors 
were  being  thrilled  by  the  speaker's  eloquence,  Franklin  was 
backing  -away  from  him  step  by  step,  in  order  to  estimate'  how 
far  his  voice  would  carry,  and  thus  to  verify  the  newspaper 
accounts  of  his  having  preached  to  twenty-five  thousand  people 
in  the  fields.  Franklin  went  away  full  of  admiration  for  the 
preacher's  voice,  but  with  no  word  of  comment  on  his  sermon. 
He  went  often  to  hear  Whitefield,  but  always  as  a  very  human 
public  speaker  and  never  as  a  "  divine."  A  biographer,  even 
one  of  his  associates,  could  not  have  known  many  of  the  inti 
mate  facts  that  Franklin  included,  and  he  would  almost  surely 
have  left  out  other  details  as  irrelevant  or  impertinent.  Franklin 
himself,  in  contrast,  wrote  the  things  which  still  clung  in  his 
old  man's  memory  and  which  must  have  been  important  in 
his  development,  or  he  would  have  forgotten  them. 

Another  striking  feature  of  the  "  Autobiography "  is  its 
honesty,  for  he  did  not  hesitate  to  record  happenings  which 
revealed  defects  in  his  character — defects  which  nine  out  of  ten 
admiring  biographers  would  have  been  inclined  to  omit  or  even 
actually  to  cover  up.  Franklin  knew  that  his  life  had  not  been 
all  admirable,  that  many  times  it  had  not  been  above  reproach ; 
but,  all  things  considered,  he  was  willing  to  let  it  stand  for 
what  it  was.  In  consequence,  if  one  reads  his  story  as  honestly 
as  Franklin  wrote  it, — and  few  people  do,  —  it  will  appear  that 
not  only  was  he  disorderly  and  unmethodical  but  that  he  was 
not  always  truthful,  that  he  was  sometimes  unscrupulous  in  busi 
ness,  and  that  he  was  at  times  self-indulgent  and  immoral. 
In  fact  too  often  the  editing  of  Franklin's  life-story  seems 
to  have  been  done  on  the  principle  laid  down  by  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson  about  Chesterfield's  "Letters  to  his  Son" — that  they 
should  be  put  into  the  hands  of  every  young  man  after  the 
immorality  had  been  taken  out  of  them.  This  is  not  honest 
teaching  and  does  not  lead  to  honest  habits  of  study. 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     55 

The  truth  is  that  Franklin  was  like  other  people  in  being 
a  combination  of  virtues  and  defects.  He  was  unlike  other 
people  in  having  extraordinary  talents  and  virtues  and  in 
owning  up  to  his  defects.  For  the  two  great  ''errata"  of  his 
life  —  the  use  of  money  intrusted  to  him  for  Mr.  Vernon 
and  his  unfaithfulness  while  in  London  to  Miss  Read,  his 
betrothed  —  he  afterward  made  the  fullest  possible  atonement. 
In  his  glorification  of  usefulness  at  every  turn  he  was  at 
once  the  greatest  expounder  and  the  greatest  example  of  his 
century.  He  made  a  religion  of  usefulness,  putting  it  into 
a  simple  creed  which  gives  less  heed  to  the  spirit  of  worship 
than  many  of  us  need,  but  far  more  to  the  spirit  of  service 
than  most  of  us  follow : 

It  is  expressed  in  these  words,  viz. : 

That  there  is  one  God,  who  made  all  things. 

That  he  governs  the  world  by  his  providence. 

That  he  ought  to  be  worshipped  by  adoration,  prayer  and  thanks 
giving. 

But  that  the  most  acceptable  service  of  God  is  doing  good  to  man. 

That  the  soul  is  immortal. 

And  that  God  will  certainly  reward  virtue  and  punish  vice,  either 
here  or  hereafter. 

In  the  third  of  these  articles  Franklin  recommended  a  wor 
ship  which  he  did  not  practice,  but  in  the  fourth  he  presented 
a  doctrine  of  service  of  which  his  life  was  a  remarkable  fulfill 
ment.  In  his  theory  of  life  Franklin  seemed  to  make  no  claims 
for  the  finer  emotions,  but  in  his  actual  citizenship  in  all  its  public 
aspects  he  was  so  far  above  the  average  man  as  to  serve  as  a 
pretty  safe  "  working  model  "  for  this  and  coming  generations. 

If  he  had  not  written  this  uncompleted  life-story  we  should 
not  know  the  man  as  intimately  as  we  do,  for  to  read  the 
"  Autobiography "  is  to  read  Franklin  himself. 

Since  the  ''Autobiography"  brings  the  story  of  Franklin 
only  up  to  1757,  it  gives  no  hint  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle 
in  which  as  negotiator  and  diplomat  he  was  hardly  less  im 
portant  than  was  Washington  as  military  leader.  The  America 


56          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

presented  in  these  pages  is  loyal  and  contented.  The  rising 
voices  of  discomfort  from  .1765  to.  177 $,  of  doubt  during  the 
next  year,  and  of  decision  for  revolt  in  1776  were  all  echoed 
and  often  led  by  Franklin  in  his  political  writings.  Moreover, 
it  is  of  especial  significance  in  these  days  to  recall  another  fact 
unrecorded  in  his  own  story  —  that  he  was  the  first  American 
to  represent  his  nation  among  other  nations,  and  that  in  his 
feeling  for  America  as  a  member  of  the  great  world-family  he 
was  a  hundred  years  and  more  ahead  of  his  countrymen.  The 
new  marshaling  of  forces  in  1917  which  brought  about  the 
celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July  in  London  and  .the  arrival 
of  allied  American  troops  in  Paris  recalled  from  hour  to  hour 
the  name  of  Franklin  as  our  first  great  international  figure. 


BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

BROOKS,  VAN  WYCK.   America's  Coming  of  Age,  chap.  i.   1915. 
DUNNING,  A.  E.    Congregationalists  in  America.    1894. 
FISKE,  JOHN.    New  France  and  New  England,  chap.  vi.    1902. 
WALKER,  W.    History  of  the  Congregational  Churches  in  the  United 
States.    1 894. 

Individual  Authors 

JONATHAN  EDWARDS.  There  have  been  at  least  twenty-two  editions 
.  and  printings  of  Edwards's  collected  work.  The  most  accessible  is 
that  in  four  volumes  which  appeared  originally  in  1843  and  has 
been  reprinted  nine  times,  the  last  in  1881.  In  these  volumes  the 
most  important  pages  are  in  Vol.  I,  pp.  1-27  (biographical),  and  in 
Vol.  IV  (sermons). 

Biography  and  Criticism 

DWIGHT,  TIMOTHY.   Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York  (1822), 

Vol.  IV,  pp.  323  ff. 

HOLMES,  O.  W.   Pages  from  an  Old  Volume  of  Life.    1891. 
JAMES,  WILLIAM.    The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience.    1902. 
MACPHAIL,  AN-DREW.    Essays  in.  Puritanism.    1905. 
SANBORN,  F.  B.  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,  Vol.'  XVII,  No.  4. 

October,  1883. 
.    ...STEPHEN,   LESLIE.     Litteir's  Living  ^,;Vol;.V  (ser.  >),  No.  1546. 

Jan.  24,   1874. 

WALKER,  WILLISTON.    Ten  New  England  Leaders.    1901. 
WARD,  W.  Hi    The  'Independent-,  Vol.  LV,  No.  2861.    Oct.  I,  1903. 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN     57 

WOODBRIDGE,  F.  J.  E.    Philosoph.  Rev,,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  4.    July,  1904. 
The   Congregational 'ist  and  Christian   World,   Edwards   number,  Vol. 
LXXXVIII,  No.  40.    Oct.  3,  1903. 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  There  are  eleven  editions  of  Franklin's  collected 
works  in  English,  French,  and  German,  dating  from  1773  to  1905. 
The  best  of  these  is  the  one  compiled  and  edited  by  John  Bigelow. 
1889.  10  vols.  Poor  Richard  Improved,  1757.  This  was  later 
issued  as  Father  Abraham's  Speech,  over  150  editions  and  reprints 
of  which  are  recorded.  Autobiography.  First  issued  in  Paris,  1 79 1 . 
Best  recent  editions:  John  Bigelow,  editor,  1874;  H.  E.  Scudder, 
editor,  Riverside  Literature  Series,  1886;  William  MacDonald, 
editor,  Temple  A  iito  biography  Series,  1905;  William  MacDonald, 
editor,  Everyman's  Library,  1908. 
History  and  Biography 

BRUCE,  W.  C.    Benjamin  Franklin  Self-Revealed  :  A  Biographical  and 

Critical  Study  based  mainly  on  his  own  Writings.    1918.    2  vols. 
FORD,  P.  L.    The  Many-Sided  Franklin.    1899. 

HALE,  E.  E.  and  E.  E.,  Jr.  Franklin  in  France ;  from  original  docu 
ments  most  of  which  are  now  published  for  the  first  time.  1887- 
1888.  2  vols. 

McMASTER,  J.  B.    Benjamin  Franklin  (A.M.L.  Series}.    1887. 
McMASTER,  J.  B.    Franklin  in  France.    Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  LX. 

September,  1887. 
SHERMAN,  STUART  P.    Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  chap.  vi. 

SWIFT,  LINDSAY.  Catalogue  of  works  relating  to  Benjamin  Franklin 
in  the  Boston  Public  Library.  1883. 

COLONIAL  ALMANACS 

KITTREDGE,  G.  L.    The  Old  Farmer  and  his  Almanack.    1904. 

COLONIAL  JOURNALISM 

COOK,  E.  C.    Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

chap.  vii. 

HUDSON,  F.   Journalism  in  the  United  States,  1690-1872.    1873. 
THOMAS,  I.    History  of  Printing  in  America.    1871. 

Literary  Treatment  of  the  Period 
Fiction 

COOPER,  J.  F.    Satanstoe. 

COOPER,  J.  F.   The  Chainbearer. 

COOPER,  J.  F.    The  Deerslayer. 

COOPER,  J.  F.    The  Redskins. 

THACKERAY,  W.  M.    The  Virginians. 
Poetry 

Poems  of  American  History  (edited  by  B.  E.  Stevenson),  pp.  99-125 


58          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Few  modern  readers  can  regard  the  sermons  of  Jonathan  Edwards 
as  anything  but  documents  of  historical  interest.  It  is  quite  worth 
study  to  read  at  first-hand  one  or  two  sermons  about  which  so  many 
careless  generalizations  have  been  made.  The  chief  points  of  interest 
are  the  theology  as  it  stands  in  his  own  living  words,  and  his  rhetorical 
method,  which  is  an  admirable  exercise  of  forensic  discourse. 

Read  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's  "The  Minister's  Wooing"  and 
"  Oldtown  Folks  "  (especially  chap.  )  for  a  faithful  portrait  of  one 
of  Edwards's  chief  successors  (see  pp.  305-308). 

Read  Franklin's  "  Autobiography  "  for  its  revelation  of  personal 
characteristics :  his  continued  emphasis  on  usefulness ;  his  refusal  to 
allow  his  emotions  to  carry  him  away  (whether  anger,  love,  religious 
fervor,  or  desire  for  revenge);  his  willingness  to  act  unscrupulously 
for  what  he  felt  was  a  good  end ;  his  self-analysis  (in  other  places 
than  the  passage  on  the  virtues);  his  public  spirit. 

Read  Franklin's  "Autobiography"  for  its  literary  characteristics: 
his  emulation  of  Addison's  style  (compare  passages  of  this  and  the 
Spectator] ;  his  respect  for  Pope  and  his  likeness  in  use  of  apothegms ; 
his  similarity  to  Chesterfield  in  point  of  view  and  use  of  homely  detail. 
Contrast  Franklin's  style  with  Irving's  or  Cooper's. 


CHAPTER  V 
CREVECCEUR,  THE  "AMERICAN  FARMER" 

By  1750  the  thirteen  colonies  had  all  been  long  established, 
and  the  straggling  community  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  from 
Maine  to  Georgia  had  an  individuality  of  its  own.  The  America- 
to-be  was  at  once  young  and  old.  There  were  old  towns,  old 
churches,  old  homes,  old  families.  There  was  an  aristocracy 
with  memories  that  went  back  to  England,  but  with  roots  firmly 
planted  in  American  soil.  Yet,  withal,  the  country  was  so  vast 
and  the  people  on  it  so  few  that  there  was  unlimited  chance 
for  the  energetic  man  of  real  ability.  It  was  a  new  land  of 
untold  opportunities ;  all  its  apparent  maturity  was  the  matur 
ity  of  a  well-born  young  gentleman  who  has  just  become  of 
age  and  whose  real  career  is  all  before  him.  The  old  age  of 
the  Old  World  was  something  very  different,  for  it  was  based 
chiefly  on  the  control  of  the  land  —  of  the  actual  soil  and 
stream  and  forest.  Edmund  Burke  in  1775  said  in  his  "Speech 
on  Conciliation  of  the  American  Colonies ' '  that  if  the  attempt 
were  made  to  restrict  the  population  of  the  colonies  the 
people  could  swarm  over  the  mountain  ranges  and  resettle 
there  in  a  vast  plain  five  hundred  miles  square.  However  fair 
the  estimate  was  to  the  land  in  actual  English  possession,  that 
statement  was  about  as  far  as  the  imagination  of  an  English 
man  accustomed  to  smaller  dimensions  could  then  go,  or  as  big 
a  figure  as  he  could  dare  to  hope  his  fellow-members  of  Parlia 
ment  would  believe  ;  for  in  those  days,  as  to-day,  there  were  not 
in  England  or  France  five  square  miles  of  land  out  of  owner 
ship,  and  very  little  that  was  not  in  the  possession  of  a  few 
great  proprietors.  As  the  control  of  government  was  largely  in 
the  same  hands,  the  great  mass  of  the  people  could  neither 

59 


60          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

freely  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  own  labor,  which  were  pitilessly 
reduced  by  rents  and  taxes,  nor  make  any  effective  peaceful 
protest  in  behalf  of  political  change.  The  American  Revolution 
was  the  voice  of  the  colonies  protesting  against  the  possible 
repetition  of  such  conditions  on  this  side  the  water,  and  the 
French  Revolution  was  the  harsh  voice  of  a  downtrodden 
people  calling  for  redress. 

No  man  could  better  appreciate  the  promise  of  life  in  America 
than  one  who  had  felt  the  oppression  of  the  old  conditions 
and  had  then  enjoyed  the  freedom  of  the  new  ones.  In  the 
same  years  when,  the  wiser  leaders  in  the  colonies  were  view 
ing  with  alarm  the  aggressive  and  mistaken  policies  of  George 
III  and  his  ministers,  a  young  Frenchman,  educated  in  Eng 
land,  came  over  to  this  country,  settled  and  prospered  on  his 
own  land,  and  was  so  delighted  with  his  life  as  a  farmer  and 
a  citizen  that  he  could  not  refrain  from  making  a  record  of 
his  happy  circumstances.  This  was  Michel  Guillaurrie  St.  John 
de  Crevecceur,  and  his  book  was  the  "  Letters  from  an  Ameri 
can  Farmer,"  published  in  London  in  1782,  though  written 
almost  entirely  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  It  is 
made  up  of  twelve  so-called  letters  addressed  to  an  imaginary 
English  friend.  Two  of  these  are  about  his  direct  experience 
on  his  own  acres  in  the  middle  colonies ;  five  are  on  the  people 
and  the  country  in  northern  colonies,  as  he  found  them  in 
Marthas  Vineyard,  Nantucket,  and  Cape  Cod  ;  one  is  drawn 
from  observations  in  South  Carolina ;  and  the  other  four  are 
less  related  to  definite  places,  three  being  on  nature  themes, 
and  one  —  the  most  important  of  all — on  the  ever-new  question, 
"  What  is  an  American  ?  " 

With  industry  and  frugality  hardly  less  than  Franklin's, 
Crevecceur  had  also  a  certain  power  of  poetic  imagination 
and  fresh  enthusiasm.  He  was  writing  from  a  kind  of  earthly 
paradise.  Seen  against  the  background  of  unhappy  France, 
the  rights  to  own,  to  earn,  and  to  have  a  voice  in  governing 
himself  seemed  almost  too  good  to  be  true.  He  had  no 


CRfcVECCEUR,  THE  "AMERICAN  FARMER"         6 1 

misconceptions  about  the  hard  labor  which  was  necessary  to 
make  a  farm  productive;  but  he  enjoyed  work  because  he  knew 
that  he  could  enjoy  the  fruits  of  it,  and  he  enjoyed  it  all  the 
more  because  he  knew  that  in  making  an  ear  of  corn  grow 
where  none  had  grown  before  he  was  the  best  kind  of  pioneer. 
To  his  sorrow  he  knew  much  about  the  ugliness  of  an  old 
civilization ;  it  was  with  the  zest  of  a  youthful  lover  that  he 
wrote  about  the  beauty  of  this  new  country's  inexperience. 

He  felt  a  perfect  satisfaction  in  his  own  state  of  mind  and 
body.  Although  he  was  a  newcomer,  he  had  a  sense  of  belong 
ing  to  the  district  as  complete  as  Emerson,  with  two  centuries 
of  ancestry,  was  later  to  have ;  and,  with  a  pride  equal  to 
Emerson's  in  "  Hamatreya,"  could  "affirm,  my  actions  smack 
of  the  soil."  With  his  baby  boy  ingeniously  rigged  before  him 
on  the  plow,  he  reckoned  the  increase  of  his  fields,  herds, 
flocks,  —  even  his  hives,  —  and  acknowledged  his  inferiority 
"  only  to  the  Emperor  of  China,  ploughing  as  an  example  to 
his  kingdom."  Then,  looking  beyond  his  own  little  acreage, 
he  hinted  at  future  industries.  He  was  tilling  the  surface ; 
there  must  be  further  treasures  below.  He  and  his  neighbors 
were  weaving  the  natural  wool ;  some  chemist  must  make  and 
prepare  colors.  Commerce  must  follow  on  the  heels  of  abundant 
production  ;  "the  avenues  of  trade  are  infinite."  And  in  time 
the  deep  vast  of  the  West,  about  which  men  had  yet  such  feeble 
and  timid  fancies,  must  be  explored  and  subjugated  in  its  turn. 

Here  we  have,  in  some  measure,  regained  the  ancient  dignity  of  our 
species :  our  laws  are  simple  and  just ;  we  are  a  race  of  cultivators ; 
our  cultivation  is  unrestrained,  and  therefore  everything  is  prosperous 
and  flourishing.  For  my  part  I  had  rather  admire  the  ample  barn  of 
one  of  our  opulent  farmers,  who  himself  felled  the  first  tree  in  his 
plantation,  and  was  first  founder  of  his  settlement,  than  study  the 
dimension  of  the  temple  of  Ceres.  I  had  rather  record  the  progressive 
steps  of  this  industrious  farmer,  throughout  all  the  stages  of  his  labor 
and  other  operations,  than  examine  how  modern  Italian  convents  can 
be  supported  without  doing  anything  but  singing  and  praying. 


62          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Moreover,  above  all  the  material  resources  of  field,  forest, 
and  mountain,  he  was  glad  for  the  human  stream  which  was 
flowing  into  America  to  fertilize  them.  The  thrifty  people  who 
were  shrewd  and  bold  enough  to  come  over  from  Great  Britain 
and  northern  Europe  were  to  profit  by  nature's  gifts,  and  in 
the  experience  were  to  be  welded  "  into  one  of  the  finest  sys 
tems  of  population  which  has  ever  appeared."  If  it  is  fair  to 
say  that  the  history  of  immigration  to  America  falls  into  three 
general  periods,  Crevecceur  was  writing  about  the  very  midst 
of  the  middle  period,  from  1675  to  1875.  First  had  been  a 
half  century  when  only  the  strongest  spirit  of  adventure  or  the 
strongest  desire  for  freedom  could  impel  men  to  attempt  the 
conquest  of  an  untried  world.  Every  Englishman  who  came 
over  and  every  American  born  here  was  conscious  of  the  need 
of  more  hands  to  work,  and  all  were  eager  for  more  English 
men,  and  yet  more,  to  help  in  the  gigantic  undertaking.  In 
the  last  forty  years,  with  the  taking  up  of  all  the  available  land 
and  the  manning  of  the  industries,  the  millions  who  have 
flooded  in,  not  alone  from  England  or  Great  Britain  but  mainly 
from  southern  Europe  and  the  near  East,  have  arrived  as  new 
mouths  to  feed.  The  problem  has  been  not  so  much  how  they 
could  help  America  as  how  America  could  take  care  of  them ; 
and  with  their  arrival  a  feeling  of  perplexity  and  alarm  has 
arisen  such  as  was  expressed  in  1892  by  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich 
in  his  "Unguarded  Gates": 

.  .  .  Wide  open  and  unguarded  stand  our  gates,  t 

And  through  them  presses  a  wild  motley  throng  — 

Men  from  the  Volga  and  the  Tartar  steppes, 

Featureless  figures  of  the  Hoang-Ho, 

Malayan,  Scythian,  Teuton,  Kelt,  and  Slav, 

Flying  the  Old  World's  poverty  and  scorn ; 

These  bringing  with  them  unknown  gods  and  rites, 

Those,  tiger  passions  here  to  stretch  their  claws. 

In  street  and  alley  what  strange  tongues  are  loud, 

Accents  of  menace  alien  to  our  air, 

Voices  that  once  the  Tower  of  Babel  knew ! 


CR&VECCEUR,  THE  "AMERICAN  FARMER"         63 

O  Liberty,  white  Goddess !  is  it  well 
To  leave  the  gates  unguarded  ?  .  .  . 

Have  a  care 

Lest  from  thy  brow  the  clustered  stars  be  torn 
And  trampled  in  the  dust.  .  .  . 

But  Crevecceur  was  living  between  these  two  periods.  The 
first  conquest  of  the  Eastern  woods  and  fields  had  been  made. 
America  was  known  to  be  a  land  of  plenty,  and  as  yet  there 
was  more  than  plenty  for  all  the  newcomers  from  England 
and  the  neighboring  countries  of  northern  Europe.  There 
seemed  to  be  no  limit  to  its  resources.  And  so  he  wrote : 

What,  then,  is  the  American,  this  new  man  ?  He  is  neither  a  Euro 
pean,  nor  the  descendant  of  a  European  :  hence  that  strange  mixture 
of  blood,  which  you  will  find  in  no  other  country.  I  could  point  out  to 
you  a  family,  whose  grandfather  was  an  Englishman,  whose  wife  was 
Dutch,  whose  son  married  a  Frenchwoman,  and  whose  present  four 
sons  have  now  four  wives  of  different  nations.  He  is  an  American, 
who,  leaving  behind  him  all  his  ancient  prejudices  and  manners, 
receives  new  ones  from  the  new  mode  of  life  he  has  embraced,  the 
new  government  he  obeys,  and  the  new  rank  he  holds.  He  becomes 
an  American  by  being  received  in  the  broad  lap  of  our  great  "  alma 
mater."  Here  individuals  are  melted  into  a  new  race  of  men,  whose 
labors  and  posterity  will  one  day  cause  great  changes  in  the  world. 
Americans  are  the  western  pilgrims,  who  are  carrying  along  with 
them  that  great  mass  of  arts,  sciences,  vigor  and  industry,  which  began 
long  since  in  the  East.  They  will  finish  the  great  circle. 

There  was  an  artistic  strain  in  this  man  who  could  so  easily 
kindle  with  enthusiasm  and  who  could  express  his  enthusiasms 
with  such  rhythmic  eloquence.  The  special  subjects  on  which 
he  could  best  vent  his  poetic  powers  were  found  in  his  pas 
sages  and  his  occasional  whole  chapters  on  nature  themes  —  in 
particular  the  letters  on  "John  Bartram,  Botanist,"  and  "The- 
Snakes  and  the  Humming  Bird."  In  these  it  is  impossible  not 
to  feel  the  resemblances  between  this  early  naturalist  and  his 
successor,  Thoreau  (see  pp.  222-229).  While  neither  was  a 


64          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

scientist  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  neither  was  content  to 
dismiss  nature  .subjects  with  mere  words  of  general  appreciation. 
Both  were  interested  enough  to  observe  in  detail  and  to  record 
with  some  exactness  the  ways  of  plants,  flowers,  birds,  and 
insects ;  but  both  were  at  their  best  when  they  were  giving  way 
to  the  real  zest  they  had  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  out  of  doors. 

Who  can  listen  unmoved  to  the  sweet  love-tales  of  our  robins,  told 
from  tree  to  tree,  or  to  the  shrill  cat-birds  ?  The  sublime  accents  of 
the  thrush,  from  on  high,  always  retard  my  steps,  that  I  may  listen  to 
the  delicious  music.  .  .  .  The  astonishing  art  which  all  birds  display 
in  the  construction  of  their  nests,  ill-provided  as  we  may  suppose  them 
with  proper  tools,  their  neatness,  their  convenience,  always  make  me 
ashamed  of  the  slovenliness  of  our  houses.  Their  love  to  their  dame, 
their  incessant,  careful  attention,  and  the  peculiar  songs  they  address 
to  her  while  she  tediously  incubates  their  eggs,  remind  me  of  my  duty, 
could  I  ever  forget  it.  Their  affection  to  their  helpless  little  ones  is  a 
lovely  precept ;  and,  in  short,  the  whole  economy  of  what  we  call  the 
brute  creation,  is  admirable  in  every  circumstance ;  and  vain  man, 
though  adorned  with  the  additional  gift  of  reason,  might  learn  from 
the  perfection  of  instinct,  how  to  regulate  the  follies,  and  how  to  tem 
per  the  errors,  which  this  second  gift  often  makes  him  commit.  .  .  . 
I  have  often  blushed  within  myself,  and  been  greatly  astonished, 
when  I  have  compared  the  unerring  path  they  all  follow,  —  all  just, 
all  proper,  all  wise,  up  to  the  necessary  degree  of  perfection  —  with 
the  coarse,  the  imperfect,  systems  of  men. 

For  generations  the  beauties  of  nature  had  held  small  place 
in  English  literature,  because  the  English  men  of  letters  were  a 
completely  citified  set  of  writers ;  and  they  had  received  little 
attention  in  America,  partly  because  England  gave  American 
writers  no  reminder  and  partly  because  nature  in  America  had 
been  chiefly  something  to  struggle  with. 

So  enthusiastic  was  Crevecceur  over  conditions  in  America, 
and  so  certain  was  he  that  they  never  would  be  disturbed  in 
any  unfortunate  way,  that  the  twentieth-century  reader  looks 
over  his  pre- Revolution  pages  with  a  kind  of  wistful  impatience. 
About  many  aspects  of  the  material  development  of  the  country 


CREVECCEUR,  THE  "AMERICAN  FARMER"        65 

Crevecoeur  was  keenly  prophetic.  Throughout  eleven  of  the 
letters,  evidently  written  before  177 5,  he  continued  in  an 
exalted  and  confident  mood.  Whether  he  was  presenting  the 
"  provincial  situations,  manners  and  customs "  of  Nantucket 
and  Marthas  Vineyard,  or  of  the  central  Atlantic,  or  of  the 
Southern  colonies,  his  senses  and  his  judgment  were  equally 
satisfied.  Industry  prevailed.  The  wilderness  was  being  con 
verted  into  towns,  farms,  and  highways.  "A  pleasing  uniformity 
of  decent  competence  "  was  a  rule  of  the  democracy.  The  indul 
gent  laws  were  fair  to  the  laborer  and  the  voter.  He  seemed  to 
feel  that  the  era  of  prosperity,  would  last  till  the  end  of  the  world. 
His  vision  of  the  future  was  the  vision  of  a  man  perched  in 
the  small  end  of  an  infinite  horn  of  plenty,  with  a  vista  unclouded 
by  the  hint  of  any  limit  to  the  supply  or  of  any  possible  con 
flict  between  gluttony  and  hunger. 

In  fact,  along  the  whole  coast  there  was  only  one  practice 
which  deserved  the  name  of  a  problem,  and  that  was  the 
institution  of  slavery.  Against  this,  which  existed  both  North 
and  South,  Crevecceur  protested  just  as  Samuel  Sewall  and 
John  Woolman  had  done  before  him,  and  as  Timothy  Dwight 
and  Joel  Barlow  in  Connecticut  and  William  Pinkney  and 
other  lawmakers  and  abolitionists  in  Maryland  and  Virginia 
were  to  do  soon  after  him.  Yet,  however  sincere  he  was,  he 
regarded  slavery  only  as  an  external  blemish  rather  than  as  a 
national  danger.  It  was  a  mistake,  but  not  a  menace.  It  was 
typical  of  the  America  of  the  future  that  Crevecceur  should 
have  had  so  unquestioning  a  confidence  in  the  prospect.  The 
belief  in  a  "  manifest  destiny  "  for  America,  which  is  finely 
inspiring  for  all  who  will  work  to  bring  about  a  glorious  future, 
has  been  demoralizing  to  millions  who  have  used  a  lazy  belief 
in  it  to  excuse  them  from  feeling  or  exercising  any  responsibility. 

With  the  twelfth  letter  came  a  total  change  of  key.  It  was 
evidently  written  long  after  all  the  others,  after  the  outburst  of 
war,  perhaps  after  his  New  Jersey  property  had  been  burned, 
possibly  even  during  his  return  voyage  to  France  in  the  autumn 


66          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  1780.  As  a  naturalized  subject  of  King  George,  when  well 
on  in  middle  life  he  had  been  forced  to  choose  between  his 
sworn  allegiance  and  the  interests  of  his  fellow-colonists.  He 
sympathized  with  the  American  cause,  though  he  did  not  enlist. 
And  then  in  the  years  that  followed  he  learned  (the  perennial 
lesson  of  war  time)  of  the  "vanity  of  human  wishes."  Unhap 
pily  for  the  moral  of  the  tale,  the  latter  part  of  his  life  was  far 
from  heroic.  In  the  concluding  letter,  written  quite  after  the 
fashion  of  the  most  sentimental  and  unreal  eighteenth-century 
nature  lovers,  Crevecceur  decided  to  abandon  the  struggle  in 
the  war  zone  and  to  take  up  life  anew  with  his  family  among 
the  Indians  in  the  West.  He  would  forswear  all  talk  of  poli 
tics,  "  contemplate  nature  in  her  most  wild  and  ample  extent," 
and  formulate  among  his  adopted  neighbors  a  new  system  of 
happiness.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  his  retreat  was  even 
more  complete  than  this ;  for  he  returned  permanently  to  the 
Continent,  lived  contentedly  in  Paris,  London,  and  Munich, 
married  his  daughter  to  a  French  count,  wrote  volumes  on 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  and  memorialized  his  career  as 
a  farmer  by  inditing  a  paper  on  potato  culture. 

Although  such  a  turn  of  events  resulted  in  very  much  of  an 
anticlimax,  this  fact  should  not  make  one  forget  the  prophetic 
quality  in  his  "  Letters,"  nor  should  his  failure  to  predict 
every  aspect  of  modern  life  throw  any  shadow  on  the  clearness 
with  which  he  foretold  some  of  the  most  important  of  them. 
It  is  true,  of  course,  that  he  did  not  appreciate  how  tragic  were 
to  be  the  fruits  of  slavery ;  that  he  saw  immigration  only  as  a 
desirable  supply  of  labor  to  a  continent  which  could  never  be 
overpopulated ;  that,  writing  before  the  earliest  chapter  of  the 
factory  era,  he  did  not  dream  of  the  industrial  complexities  of 
the  present.  But  when  he  said  that  the  American,  sprung  from 
Europe  but  here  adopted  into  a  new  nation,  "  ought  therefore 
to  love  this  country  much  better  than  that  wherein  either  he  or 
his  forefathers  were  born,"  he  was  saying  something  that  has 
been  repeated  with  new  conviction  ten  thousand  times  since  the 


CR£VECCEUR,  THE  " AMERICAN  FARMER"      67 

outbreak  of  the  Great  War.  And  when  he  declared  that  "  the 
American  is  a  new  man,  who  acts  upon  new  principles  "  he 
was  foreshadowing  national  policies  which  the  world  has  been 
slow  to  understand.  The  possibility  of  a  nation's  being  too 
proud  to  fight  at  the  first  provocation,  and  the  subordination 
of  national  interest  to  the  interest  of  mankind  —  this  is  the 
language  of  the  new  principles  that  Crevecceur  was  invoking. 
It  is  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  since  he  tried  to  answer  the 
question  "  What  is  an  American  ?  "  Much  has  happened  since 
then.  Internally  the  country  has  developed  to  the  extent  of 
his  farthest  dreams,  and  in  the  world-family,  after  five  great 
wars,  it  has  become  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  powers,  fulfilling 
so  much  of  his  predictions  that  one  speculates  in  all  humility 
on  what  may  be  the  next  steps  "  for  that  new  race  of  men 
whose  labours  and  posterity  will  one  day  cause  great  changes 
in  the  world." 

BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

MICHEL  GUILLAUME  ST.  JEAN  DE  CREVECCEUR.  Letters  from  an 
American  Farmer.  Written  for  the  information  of  a  friend  in 
England.  Edited  by  J.  Hector  St.  John.  1782. 

Available  Editions 

Letters  from  an  American  Farmer.    Ludwig  Lewisohn,  editor.   With 

prefatory  note  by  W.  P.  Trent.    1904. 
W.  B.  Blake,  editor.    In  Everyman's  Library, 

Biography  and  Criticism 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.    A  Colonial  Farmer's  Letters.   New  Republic, 

June  19,  1915. 

MITCHELL,  JULIA  POST.    St.  Jean  de  Crevecceur.   1916. 
TYLER,  M.  C.    Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution  (1765- 
1783),  Vol.  II,  chap,  xxvii.    1897. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  characterization  of  the  American  colonies  in   Burke's 
"  Speech  on  Conciliation." 

Read  the  letter  entitled  "What  is  an  American  ? "  and  see  how  far 
its  generalizations  apply  to  the  America  of  to-day. 


68          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Read  Zangwill's  play  "The  Melting  Pot"  in  the  light  of  this 
letter  on  "  What  is  an  American  ? " 

Read  passages  which  deal  with  nature  for  Crevecceur's  observation 
on  plant  and  animal  life. 

Read  the  closing  essay  in  comparison  with  Rousseau's  "  fimile  " 
for  its  romantic  idealization  of  primitive  life.  Compare  this  essay 
with  the  picture  of  frontier  life  as  presented  in  "The  Deerslayer" 
or  "  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans."  Note  the  resemblances  to 
Chateaubriand's  "  Rend." 

Read  the  opening  chapters  or  divisions  of  Thoreau's  "  Walden  " 
and  compare  with  the  Crevecceur  " Letters"  in  point  of  the  contrasting 
views  on  property,  labor,  and  citizenship. 

Read  Mary  Antin's  "  The  Promised  Land  "  for  the  differences 
in  the  America  to  which  Crevecoeur  came  and  the  America  which 
she  found. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  AND  PHILIP  FRENEAU 

With  the  Revolutionary  War  there  was  naturally  a  great 
output  of  printed  matter.  Controversial  pamphlets,  state  papers, 
diaries,  letters,  and  journals,  plays  (with  prologues  and  epi 
logues),  songs,  ballads  and  satires,  all  swelled  the  total.  No 
one  can  fully  understand  the  Revolution  or  the  period  after 
it  who  does  not  read  extensively  in  this  material ;  yet,  taken 
in  its  length  and  breadth,  the  prose  and  most  of  the  verse 
are  important  as  history  rather  than  as  literature.  Out  of 
the  numerous  company  of  writers  who  were  producing  while 
Franklin  was  an  aging  man  and  while  Crevecceur  was  an 
American  farmer,  one,  Philip  Freneau,  may  be  considered  as 
chief  representative,  and  two  others,  Francis  Hopkinson  and 
John  Trumbull,  deserve  a  briefer  comment. 

Francis  Hopkinson  (1737-1791),  the  Philadelphian,  was 
well  characterized  in  a  much-quoted  letter  from  John  Adams 
to  his  wife  in  August,  1776  : 

At  this  shop  I  met  Mr.  Francis  Hopkinson,  late  a  mandamus 
councillor  of  New  Jersey,  now  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
who  .  .  .  was  liberally  educated,  and  is  a  painter  and  a  poet.  ...  He 
is  one  of  your  pretty  little,  curious,  ingenious  men. .  . .  He  is  genteel 
and  well-bred  and  is  very  social.  I  wish  I  had  leisure  and  tranquillity 
of  mind  to  amuse  myself  with  those  elegant  and  ingenious  arts  of  paint 
ing,  sculpture,  statuary,  architecture  and  music.  But  I  have  not. 

Undoubtedly  Hopkinson 's  work  savors  of  the  dilettante 
throughout;  yet  part  of  its  historical  significance  is  inherent 
in  this  fact,  for  Hopkinson  is  one  of  the  earliest  examples  of 
talented  versatility  in  American  life.  He  had  virtues  to  com 
plement  the  accomplishments  half  enviously  cited  by  John 

69 


70          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Adams.  He  was  a  learned  judge,  a  stalwart  revolutionist,  a 
practical  man  of  affairs,  and  a  humorist. 

His  collected  writings  in  three  volumes  were  done  in  the 
best  manner  of  eighteenth-century  England.  Five  sixths  of  them 
are  essays,  written  not  in  series,  but  quite  of  the  Spectator 
type.  Three  prose  satires  —  "A  Pretty  Story"  (1774),  "  A 
Prophecy  "  (1776),  and  "The  New  Roof"  (1778)  —  are  as  im 
portant  a  trio  as  any  written  by  one  man  in  the  Revolutionary 
days.  The  other  sixth  —  his  verse  —  belonged  no  less  to  the 
polite  literature  of  the  period.  There  are  Miltonic  imitations, 
songs,  sentiments,  hymns,  a  fable,  and  a  "piece  of  advice  to  a 
young  lady.  There  are  occasional  poems,  including  birthday  and 
wedding  greetings,  dramatic  prologues  and  epilogues,  elegies, 
and  rimed  epitaphs.  Verses  of  these  kinds,  if  they  were  all 
Hopkinson  had  written,  would  indicate  a  hopeless  subservience 
to  prevailing  English  fashions.  But  Hopkinson  was  nobody's 
vassal.  When  he  wrote 

My  generous  heart  disdains 

The  slave  of  love  to  be, 
I  scorn  his  servile  chains, 

And  boast  my  liberty, 

he  might  as  truly  have  asserted  his  refusal  to  submit  to  any 
sort  of  trammels  except  at  his  own  option.  Into  a  few  imitation 
ballads  he  poured  the  new  wine  of  Revolutionary  sentiment, 
one  of  which,  "  The  Battle  of  the  Kegs,"  with  its  mocking 
jollity,  put  good  cheer  in  all  colonial  hearts  in  the  times  that 
tried  men's  souls.  It  was  his  jaunty  self-control,  the  quality  of 
heroism  without  its  pompous  mannerisms,  that  set  Hopkinson 
off  in,  contrast  with  his  fellows.  He  was  almost  the  least 
pretentious  of  them  all,  yet  few  were  more  effective. 

John  Trumbull  (1750-1831),  most  talented  of  the  "Hart 
ford  Wits,"  tried  his  hand,  like  Hopkinson,  at  the  con 
ventional  poetical  subjects,  but,  unlike  him,  the  bulk  of  his 
verse  was  contained  in  two  long  satirical  essays:  "The  Progress 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      71 

of  Dulness "  (1772  and  1773)  and  "  M'Fingal "  (1776  and 
1782).  Apparently  he  had  no  further  ambition  for  himself  or 
other  American  poets  than  to 

bid  their  lays  with  lofty  Milton  vie ; 
Or  wake  from  nature's  themes  the  moral  song, 
And  shine  with  Pope,  with  Thompson  and  with  Young. 
This  land  her  Swift  and  Addison  shall  view, 
The  former  honors  equalled  by  the  new ; 
Here  shall  some  Shakspeare  charm  the  rising  age, 
And  hold  in  magic  chains  the  listening  stage ; 
A  second  Watts  shall  strike  the  heavenly  lyre, 
And  other  muses  other  bards  inspire. 

Nevertheless,  in  these  two  satires  he  wrote  first  from  a  pro 
vincial  and  then  from  an  early  national  point  of  view.  "  The 
Progress  of  Dulness  "  is  a  disquisition  on  how  not  to  bring 
up  children.  He  chose  for  his  examples  Tom  Brainless,  Dick 
Hairbrain,  and  Harriet  Simper.  He  put  the  boys  through 
college  (Trumbull  was  a  graduate  of  Yale),  making  one  a  dull 
preacher  and  the  other  a  rake.  Harriet,  the  American  counter 
part  of  Biddy  Tipkin  in  Steele's  "Tender  Husband"  or 
Arabella  in  Mrs.  Lennox's  "The  Female  Quixote,"  is  fed  on 
flattery,  social  ambition,  and  the  romantic  fiction  of  the  hour 
(see  p.  103),  becomes  a  coquette  and  a  jilt,  and,  thrown  over 
by  Dick,  sinks  into  obscurity  as  the  faded  wife  of  Parson  Tom. 
This  was  homemade  satire,  democratic  in  its  choice  and 
treatment  of  character,  and  clearly  located  in  and  about  New 
Haven,  Connecticut. 

So  also,  and  much  more  aggressively,  was  the  rimed  political 
document  "  M'Fingal,"  an  immensely  popular  diatribe  at  the 
Tory  of  the  Revolution  —  his  attitude,  his  general  demeanor, 
and  his  methods  of  argument.  It  recounts  the  events  of  a  day 
in  a  New  England  town  which  was  torn  by  t^ie  dissensions 
between  the  rival  factions  in  the  opening  days  of  the  conflict, 
and  describes  in  detail  the  ways  in  which  this  particularly 
offensive  Tory  was  driven  to  cover.  The  modern  reader  must 


72          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

bring  to  it  a  good  deal  of  student  interest  if  he  expects  to 
complete  the  reading  and  understand  it,  even  with  the  aid  of 
Trumbull's  copious  footnotes.  For  the  moment  it  was  a  skill 
ful  piece  of  journalistic  writing.  Trumbull  knew  how  to  appeal 
to  the  prejudices  of  his  sympathizers  (for  controversial  war 
writing  confirms  rather  than  convinces) ;  he  knew  how  to  draw 
on  their  limited  store  of  general  knowledge ;  and  he  knew  how 
to  lead  them  on  with  a  due  employment  of  literary  ingenuities 
like  puns,  multiple  rimes,  and  word  elisions,  and  a  judicious 
resort  to  rough  jocosity  and  vituperation.  "M'Fingal"  was  war 
literature  with  all  its  defects  of  passion,  uncandor,  and  specious- 
ness,  but  the  score  or  more  of  editions  through  which  it  ran  be 
fore  1800  are  evidence  that  it  reached  the  low  mark  at  which  it 
was  aimed.  If  it  had  the  faults  of  its  kind,  so  in  later  years  did 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  and  "  Mr.  Britling  sees  it  Through." 

This  most  representative  poet  of  the  Revolutionary  period 
/as  Philip  Freneau,  who  lived  from  1752  to  1832  and  who 
was  active  in  authorship  for  forty-five  years,  from  1770  on. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  Princeton  College  in  1771,  gained  a 
sudden  reputation  as  a  political  satirist  in  1775,  and  lived 
a  strangely  varied  life  from  then  till  well  into  the  nineteenth 
century.  For  three  years  he  lived  in  Santa  Cruz  and  Bermuda. 
In  1779  he  sailed  to  the  Azores,  and  for  a  six-year  period  at 
a  later  time  he  was  engaged  in  Atlantic  coast  trade.  From 
1784  to  1807  he  went  the  circle  in  five  stages  as  editor,  sea 
man,  editor,  farmer,  and  seaman  again.  Everything  he  did  he 
seems  to  have  done  hard,  and  nothing  held  him  long.  It  is  a 
kind  of  life  which  does  not  seem  surprising  in  a  man  who  has 
often  been  called  "Poet  of  the  Revolution,"  for  he  wrote  as 
vigorously  as  he  sailed  or  farmed  or  edited,  and  he  plowed 
his  political  satires  quite  as  deep  and  straight  as  he  plowed 
the  seas  and  the  furrows  of  his  fields.  After  his  bitter  experi 
ence  of  three  months  on  a  British  prison  ship,  he  blazed  out 
with  a  savage  flame  of  verse  which  has  carried  the  horrors  of 
this  particular  form  of  war  brutality  down  the  centuries  to  greet 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      73 

the  "atrocities"  of  the  present.  When  the  editors  of  rival 
papers  and  rival  parties  annoyed  him  he  scourged  them  with 
a  savageness  of  attack  which  was  notable  even  in  a  day  when 
journalism  knew  no  restraint  and  recognized  no  proprieties. 
Frerieau  had  at  least  one  title  to  the  friendship  of  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson,  who  loved  "  a  good  hater." 

This  vehement  side  of  his  life  resulted  in  a  generous  amount 
of  war  poetry  which  would  be  remembered — or  forgotten  —  with 
the  best  of  the  rest  of  its  kind  if  it  were  all  that  he  had  written. 
In  a  brief  survey  like  the  present  chapter  it  can  therefore  serve 
the  double  purpose  of  illustrating  the  verse  of  the  Revolution 
and  of  representing  a  less  important  aspect  of  his  whole  work. 
In  this  respect  it  is  comparable  to  the  Civil- War  and  anti- 
slavery  poetry  of  Whittier.  Sometimes  this  verse  is  full  of 
scorn,  as  in  "  The  Midnight  Consultations,"  in  which  Lord 
Howe  is  ridiculed  as  presiding  over  a  council  which  arrives  at- 
the  following  heroic  conclusion  : 

Three  weeks  —  ye  gods  !  —  nay,  three  long  years  it  seems 
Since  roast  beef  I  have  touched,  except  in  dreams, 
In  sleep,  choice  dishes  to  my  view  repair, 
Waking,  I  gape  and  champ  the  empty  air,  — 

On  neighbouring  isles  uncounted  cattle  stray, 

Fat  beeves,  and  swine,  an  ill-defended  prey  — 

These  are  fit  victims  for  my  noonday  jdish, 

These,  if  my  soldiers  act  as  I  would  wish, 

In  one  short  week  should  glad  your  maws  and  mine ; 

On  mutton  we  will  sup  —  on  roast  beef  dine. 

Sometimes  it  is  full  of  the  hate  which  war  always  engenders. 
Freneau  wrote  no  more  bitterly  about  the  king,  Lord  North, 
and  the  leading  generals  in  active  service  against  the  colonists 
than  did  Jonathan  Odell  —  the  foremost  Tory  satirist  —  about 
Washington  and  his  associates.  As  the  war  went  on,  and  the 
likelihood  of  American  success  became  stronger,  Freneau 's 
tone  softened,  as  he  could  well  afford  to  have  it,  and  in  such 


74          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

a  product  as  "  The  Political  Balance  "  he  wrote  with  nothing 
more  offensive  than  the  mockery  of  a  rather  ungenerous  victor. 
This  poem,  characterized  by  well-maintained  humor,  is  one  of 
the  best  of  its  kind.  It  represents  Jove  as  one  day  looking 
over  the  book  of  Fate  and  of  coming  to  an  incomplete  account 
of  Britain,  for  the  Fates  had  neglected  to  reveal  the  outcome 
of  the  war.  In  order  to  find  out  for  himself,  he  directs  Vulcan 
to  make  an  exact  model  of  the  globe,  borrows  the  scales  from 
Virgo,  and  plans  to  foretell  the  future  by  setting  the  mother 
country  on  one  side  and  the  States  on  the  other.  When,  after 
many  difficulties,  the  experiment  is  tried,  of  course  the  States 
overbalance  the  little  island.  Then,  to  make  sure,  he  adds  the 
foreign  dominions  on  Britain's  side, 

But  the  gods  were  confounded  and  struck  with  surprise, 
And  Vulcan  could  hardly  believe  his  own  eyes ! 

For  (such  was  the  purpose  and  guidance  of  fate) 
Her  foreign  dominions  diminish'd  her  weight  — 
By  which  it  appeared,  to  Britain's  disaster, 
Her  foreign  possessions  were  changing  their  master. 

Then  as  he  replac'd  them,  said  Jove  with  a  smile  — 
"  Columbia  shall  never  be  ruPd  by  an  isle  — 
But  vapours  and  darkness  around  her  shall  rise, 
And  tempests  conceal  her  a  while  from  our  eyes ; 

"  So  locusts  in  Egypt  their  squadrons  display, 
And  rising,  disfigure  the  face  of  the  day ; 
So  the  moon,  at  her  full,  has  a  frequent  eclipse, 
And  the  sun  in  the  ocean  diurnally  dips. 

"  Then  cease  your  endeavors,  ye  vermin  of  Britain  — 
(And  here,  in  derision,  their  island  he  spit  on) 
'T  is  madness  to  seek  what  you  never  can  find, 
Or  think  of  uniting  what  nature  disjoin'd ; 

"  But  still  you  may  flutter  awhile  with  your  wings, 
And  spit  out  your  venom,  and  brandish  your  stings, 
Your  hearts  are  as  black,  and  as  bitter  as  gall, 
A  curse  to  yourselves,  and  a  blot  on  the  Ball." 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      75 

After  the  successful  completion  of  the  war  it  was  only  natural 
that  Americans  in  their  rejoicing  should  imagine  the  glorious 
future  that  awaited  their  new  independence.  The  more  vivid 
their  imaginations  were,  the  more  splendid  were  the  prophecies 
they  indulged  in.  As  we  read  over  the  records  of  their  lofty 
hopes  we  are  reminded  of  commencement  oratory ;  and  the 
likeness  is  not  unreal,  for  these  post- Re  volution  poets  were  in 
fact  very  like  eager  college  graduates,  diploma  in  hand,  looking 
forward  to  vague  but  splendid  careers.  It  was  in  these  poems 
too  that  the  germs  of  Fourth  of  July  oratory  first  took  root  — 
the  oratory  described  by  James  Fenimore  Cooper  in  his  "  Home 
as  Found  "  (chap,  xxi) : 

There  were  the  usual  allusions  to  Greece  and  Rome,  between  the 
republics  of  which  and  that  of  this  country  there  exists  some  such 
affinity  as  is  to  be  found  between  a  horse-chestnut  and  a  chestnut 
horse,  or  that  of  mere  words ;  and  a  long  catalogue  of  national 
glories  that  might  very  well  have  sufficed  for  all  republics,  both  of 
antiquity  and  of  our  own  time.  But  when  the  orator  came  to  speak 
of  the  American  character,  and  particularly  of  the  intelligence  of  the 
nation,  he  was  most  felicitous,  and  made  the  largest  investments  in 
popularity.  According  to  his  account  of  the  matter,  no  other  people 
possessed  a  tithe  of  the  knowledge,  or  a  hundredth  part  of  the  honesty 
and  virtue  of  the  very  community  he  was  addressing ;  and  after  labor 
ing  for  ten  minutes  to  convince  his  hearers  that  they  already  knew 
everything,  he  wasted  several  more  in  trying  to  persuade  them  to 
undertake  further  acquisitions  of  the  same  nature. 

These  elephantine  poems  were  written  each  in  several 
"books,"  to  each  one  of  which  was  prefixed  an  outline  which, 
in  the  language  of  the  day,  was  called  "  the  argument."  Here 
is  a  part  of  the  outline  for  Book  VII  of  Timothy  Dwight's 
"Greenfield  Hill"  (1794): 

Happiness  of  U.  S.  contrasted  to  Eastern  Despotism.  Universal 
Prevalence  of  Freedom.  Unfortified,  and  therefore  safe,  state  of  U.  S. 
Influence  of  our  state  of  Society  on  the  Mind.  Public  Property 
employed  for  the  Public  Benefit.  Penal  Administrations  improved 


76          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

by  Benevolence.  Policy  enlarges  its  scope.  Knowledge  promoted. 
Improvements  in  Astronomical  and  other  Instruments  of  Science. 
Improvements  of  the  Americans,  in  Natural  Philosophy  —  Poetry  — 
Music  —  and  Moral  Science.  State  of  the  American  Clergy.  Manners 
refined.  Artificial  Manners  condemned.  American  Women.  Cultiva 
tion  advanced.  Other  Nations  visit  this  country,  and  learn  the  nature, 
and  causes,  of  our  happiness.  Conclusion. 

And  here  is  a  part  of  the  argument  to  Book  IX  of  Joel  Bar 
low's  "  Columbiad,"  in  which  he  demonstrates  that  the  present 
government  of  America  is  a  culmination  of  all  human  progress  : 

...  the  ancient  and  modern  states  of  the  arts  and  of  society,  Cru 
sades,  Commerce,  Hanseatic  League,  Copernicus,  Kepler,  Newton, 
Galileo,  Herschel,  Descartes,  Bacon,  Printing  Press,  Magnetic  Needle, 
Geographic  Discoveries,  Federal  System  in  America. 

Freneau  had  shared  all  this  prophetic  enthusiasm,  and  had 
expressed  it  even  before  the  war,  partly  in  an  actual  commence 
ment  poem  on  "The  Rising  Glory  of  America  "-and  partly 
in  a  series  of  eighteen  "Pictures  of  Columbus."  Just  after 
graduation  he  had  written : 

I  see,  I  see 

A  thousand  Kingdoms  rais'd,  cities  and  men 
Numerous  as  sand  upon  the  ocean  shore ; 
Th'  Ohio  then  shall  glide  by  many  a  town 
Of  note ;  and  where  the  Mississippi  stream 
By  forests  shaded  now  runs  weeping  on, 
Nations  shall  grow,  and  States  not  less  in  fame 
Than  Greece  and  Rome  of  old ;  we  too  shall  boast 
Our  Alexanders,  Pompeys,  heroes,  kings, 
That  in  the  womb  of  time  yet  dormant  lye 
Waiting  the  joyful  hour  of  life  and  light. 

After  the  war,  however,  he  did  not  rejoin  the  increasing 
choir  who  were  singing  this  kind  of  choral.  His  most  interest 
ing  bit  of  prophecy,  which  must  have  seemed  to  his  contem 
poraries  to  be  a  piece  of  the  airiest  fancy,  has  been  amazingly 
verified  more  than  a  century  after  he  wrote  it.  This  is 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      77 

"The   Progress  of   Balloons,"  written  in  the  jaunty -tone  of 
"  The  Political  Balance  "  : 

The  stagemen,  whose  gallopers  scarce  have  the  power 

Through  the  dirt  to  convey  you  ten  miles  in  an  hour, 

When  advanc'd  to  balloons  shall  so  furiously  drive 

You  '11  hardly  know  whether  you  're  dead  or  alive. 

The  man  who  at  Boston  sets  out  with  the  sun, 

If  the  wind  should  be  fair,  may  be  with  us  at  one, 

At  Gunpowder  Ferry  drink  whiskey  at  three 

And  at  six  be  at  Edentown,  ready  for  tea. 

(The  machine  shall  be  order 'd,  we  hardly  need  say, 

To  travel  in  darkness  as  well  as  by  day) 

At  Charleston  by  ten  he  for  sleep  shall  prepare, 

And  by  twelve  the  next  day  be  the  devil  knows  where. 

If  Britain  shbuld  ever  disturb  us  again, 
(As  they  threaten  to  do  in  the  next  George's  reign) 
No  doubt  they  will  play  us  a  set  of  new  tunes, 
And  pepper  us  well  from  their  fighting  balloons. 

Such  wonders  as  these  from  balloons  shall  arise  — 
And  the  giants  of  old  that  assaulted  the  skies 
With  their  Ossa  on  Pelion,  shall  freely  confess 
That  all  they  attempted  was  nothing  to  this. 

This,  of  course,  was  newspaper  poetry,  and  Freneau,  for  long 
years  of  his  life,  was  a  newspaper  man.  Even  his  lines  "  To 
Sir  Toby,"  a  slaveholding  sugar-planter  in  Jamaica,  spirited  as 
they  are,  are  in  effect  an  open  letter  in  protest  against  human 
slavery,  and  they  were  printed  in  the  National  Gazette  in  1792. 

The  really  poetical  work  of  Freneau,  however,  which  entitles 
him  to  an  attention  greater  than  that  for  his  fellows,  had  nothing 
to  do  with  political  or  military  events  of  the  day.  They  were 
his  shorter  poems  on  American  nature  and  American  tradition  ; 
and  a  distinguishing  feature  of  them  was  that  they  were  differ 
ent  from  the  English  poetry  of  the  time,  in  form  as  well  as  in 
content.  As  a  young  man  Freneau  had  set  out  on  his  career 


78          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

by  writing  after  the  style  of  Milton  and  Dryden  and  Pope  and 
their  lesser  imitators.  This  was  absolutely  natural.  Until  after 
the  Revolution,  America  was  England ;  and  it  was  more  nearly 
like  England  in  speech  and  in  thought  than  much  of  Scotland 
and  Ireland  are  to-day.  All  the  refinements  of  America  were 
derived  from  English  sources ;  practically  all  the  colonists' 
reading  was  from  English  authors.  But  after  the  Revolution  - 
there  came  a  strong  reaction  of  feeling.  We  can  look  to 
Freneau's  own  rimes  (journalistic  ones  again)  for  an  explana 
tion  of  the  new  and  native  quality  of  his  later  verse ;  they  are 
called  "  Literary  Importation,"  and  they  conclude  as  follows : 

It  seems  we  had  spirit  to  humble  a  throne, 
Have  genius  for  science  inferior  to  none, 
But  hardly  encourage  a  plant  of  our  own : 

If  a  college  be  planned 

T  is  all  at  a  stand 

'Till  to  Europe  we  send  at  a  shameful  expense, 
To  send  us  a  bookworm  to  teach  us  some  sense. 

Can  we  never  be  thought  to  have  learning  or  grace 
Unless  it  be  brought  from  that  horrible  place 
Where  tyranny  reigns  with  her  impudent  face ; 

And  popes  and  pretenders 

And  sly  faith-defenders 
Have  ever  been  hostile  to  reason  and  wit, 
Enslaving  a  world  that  shall  conquer  them  yet. 

'T  is  a  folly  to  fret  at  the  picture  I  draw : 

And  I  say  what  was  said  by  a  Doctor  Magraw ; 

"  If  they  give  us  their  Bishops,  they  '11  give  us  their  law." 

How  that  will  agree 

With  such  people  as  we, 
Let  us  leave  to  the  learned  to  reflect  on  awhile, 
And  say  what  they  think  in  a  handsomer  stile. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  feeling  that  America  should  be 
different,  the  tendency  grew  to  seek  out  native  subject  matter 
and  to  cease  conscious  imitation  of  English  literary  models. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      79 

For  the  next  half  century  American  authors  were  contending, 
every  now  and  then,  that  native  themes  should  occupy  their  atten 
tion,  and  a  good  deal  of  verse  and  prose  was  written  with  this 
idea  in  mind.  Most  of  it  was  more  conscientious  than  interest 
ing,  for  literature,  to  be  genuinely  effective,  must  be  produced  not 
to  demonstrate  a  theory  but  to  express  what  is  honestly  in  the 
author's  mind.  The  first  step  toward  achieving  nationality  in 
American  writing  was,  therefore,  to  achieve  new  and  independ 
ent  habits  of 'national  thinking.  The  Irish  mind,  for  example, 
is  basically  different  from  the  English  mind,  and  Irish  literature 
has  therefore  a  long  and  beautiful  history  of  its  own,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  Ireland  is  near  to  England  and  subject  to  it. 
But  the  Australian  is  simply  a  transplanted  English-speaking, 
English-thinking  mind,  and  Australia  has  consequently  produced 
no  literature  of  which  the  world  is  yet  aware. 

Now  Freneau  was  a  naturally  independent  thinker.  He  was 
educated  and  well  read  in  the  best  of  English  and  classical  lit 
erature.  But  unlike  most  of  his  fellow  authors,  he  was  not  a 
city  man,  nor  a  teacher,  preacher,  or  lawyer.  His  hands  were 
hardened  by  the  steersman's  wheel  and  the  plow,  and  doubt 
less  much  of  his  verse  —  or  at  least  the  inspiration  for  it  — 
came  to  him  on  shipboard  or  in  the  field  rather  than  in  the 
library.  In  the  midst  of  the  crowd  he  was  an  easy  man  to  stir 
up  to  fighting  pitch.  All  his  war  verse  shows  this.  Yet  when 
he  was  alone  and  undisturbed  he  inclined  to  placid  meditation, 
and  he  expressed  himself  in  the  simplest  ways.  As  a  young 
man  he  wrote  a  little  poem  called  "  Retirement."  It  is  the  kind 
of  thing  that  many  other  eighteenth-century  poets  —  confirmed 
city  dwellers  —  wrote  in  moments  of  temporary  world-weariness ; 
but  Freneau's  life-story  shows  that  he  really  meant  it : 

A  cottage  I  could  call  my  own 

Remote  from  domes  of  care ; 
A  little  garden,  walPd  with  stone, 
The  wall  with  ivy  overgrown, 

A  limpid  fountain  near, 


80          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Would  more  substantial  joys  afford, 

More  real  bliss  impart 
Than  all  the  wealth  that  misers  hoard, 
Than  vanquish 'd  worlds,  or  worlds  restor'd  — 

Mere  cankers  of  the  heart ! 

And  there  was  another  poem  of  his  youth  which  told  a  secret 
of  his  real  character.  This  was  "  The  Power  of  Fancy,"  an 
imitation  of  Milton  in  its  form,  but  genuinely  Freneau's  in  its 
sentiment.  The  best  of  his  later  work  is  really  a  compound  of 
these  suggestions  —  poems  of  fancy  composed  in  retirement. 
Thus  he  wrote  on  "The  Indian  Burying  Ground,"  interpreting 
the  fact  that 

The  Indian,  when  from  life  releas'd, 

Again  is  seated  with  his  friends 
And  shares  again  the  joyous  feast, 

instead  of  being  buried  recumbent  as  white  men  are.  And  thus 
he  wrote  in  "To  a  Caty-did,"  "  The  Wild  Jionevsuckle."  and 
"  On  a  Honey  Bee,"  little  lyrics  of  nature  and  natural  life, 
which  were  almost  the  first  verse  written  in  America  based 
on  native  subject  matter  and  expressed  in  simple,  direct,  and 
unpretentious  form. 

Nathaniel  Ames,  in  one  of  his  early  almanacs,  recorded 
soberly : 

MAY 

Now  Winters  rage  abates,  now  chearful  Hours 
Awake  the  Spring,  and  Spring  awakes  the  Flowers. 
The  opening  Buds  salute  the  welcome  Day, 
And  Earth  relenting,  feels  the  genial  Ray. 
The  Blossoms  blow,  the  Birds  on  Bushes  sing ; 
And  Nature  has  accomplish'd  all  the  Spring. 

This  was  perfectly  conventional  and  perfectly  indefinite  ;  not  a 
single  flower,  bud,  blossom,  bird,  or  bush  is  specified.  The  six 
lines  amount  to  a  general  formula  for  spring  and  would  apply 
equally  well  to  Patagonia,  Italy,  New  England,  or  northern 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      8 1 

Siberia.  Mr.  R.  Lewis,  who  wrote  on  "A  Journey  from 
Patapsco  to  Annapolis"  in  1730,  improves  on  this: 

First  born  of  Spring,  here  the  Pacone  appears. 

Whose  golden  Root  a  silver  Blossom  rears. 

In  spreading  Tufts  see  there  the  Crowfoot,  blue, 

On  whose  green  Leaves  still  shines  a  globous  Dew ; 

Behold  the  Cinque-foil,  with  its  dazling  Dye 

Of  flaming  Yellow,  wounds  the  tender  Eye. 

But  there  enclos'd  the  grassy  Wheat  is  seen 

To  heal  the  aching  Sight  with  cheerful  Green. 

Lewis  mentions  definite  flowers,  colors,  and  characteristics,  but 
he  never  misses  a  chance  to  tuck  in  a  conventional  adjective  or 
participle,  and  he  is  led  by  them  into  weaving  the  extravagant 
fancy  of  an  eye  made  to  ache  by  flaming  and  dazzling  colors, 
and  healed  by  the  cheerful  green  of  the  wheat  field.  In  con 
trast  to  these,  Freneau's  little  nature  poems  are  as  exact  as  the 
second  and  as  simple  as  the  subject  on  which  he  writes : 

In  a  branch  of  willow  hid 
Sings  the  evening  Caty-did : 
From  the  lofty  locust  bough 
Feeding  on  a  drop  of  dew. 
In  her  suit  of  green  array'd 
Hear  her  singing  in  the  shade, 

Caty-did,  Caty-did,  Caty-did. 

Such  simplicity  as  this  does  not  seem  at  all  remarkable 
to-day,  but  if  it  be  compared  with  the  fixed  formalities  that 
belonged  to  almost  all  the  verse  of  Freneau's  time  it  will  stand 
out  as -a  remarkable  exception. 

On  account  of  the  two  kinds  of  poetry  which  Freneau  pub 
lished  he  has  often  been  given  misleading  titles  by  his  admirers. 
Those  who  have  been  interested  in  him  mainly  or  exclusively 
from  the  historical  point  of  view  have  christened  him  the 
"  Poet  of  the  American  Revolution."  This  is  unfair  because  of 
the  implication  that  he  gave  his  best  energy  to  this  and  had  no 
other  right  to  distinction.  Even  as  a  journalist  he  was  more 


82          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

than  poet  of  the  Revolution,  since  he  wrote  on  local  and  timely 
themes  for  many  years  after  its  close.  This  designation  does 
not  claim  enough  for  him.  The  other  title  is  defective  for  the 
opposite  reason,  that  it  claims  too  much.  This  is  the  "  Father 
of  American  Poetry."  Such  a  sweeping  phrase  ought  to  be 
avoided  resolutely.  It  is  doubly  false,  in  suggesting  that  there 
was  no  American  poetry  before  he  wrote  and  that  everything 
since  has  been  derived  from  him.  The  facts  are  that  he  had  a 
native  poetic  gift  which  would  have  led  to  his  writing  poetry 
had  there  never  been  a  war  between  the  colonies  and  England, 
but  that  when  the  war  came  on  he  was  one  of  the  most  effec 
tive  penmen  on  his  side ;  that  entrance  into  the  field  of  public 
affairs  diverted  him  from  the  paths  of  quiet  life ;  that  after  the 
war  he  continued  both  kinds  of  writing.  He  never  ceased  wholly 
to  think  and  write  about  ''affairs,"  but  more  and  more  he  specu 
lated  on  the  future,  dreamed  of  the  picturesque  past,  and  played 
with  themes  of  graceful  and  tender  sentiment.  He  is  very  much 
worth  reading  as  a  commentator  on  his  own  times,  and  he  is  no 
less  worth  reading  for  the  beauty  of  many  poems  quite  without 
reference  to  the  time  or  place  in  which  they  were  written. 

The  long  and  fruitful  colonial  period  must  not  be  overlooked 
by  any  honest  student  of  American  literature,  yet  it  may  fairly 
be  regarded  as  no  more  than  a  preparatory  stage.  It  has  the 
same  relationship  to  the  whole  story  as  do  the  ancestry,  boy 
hood,  and  education  to  the  development  of  an  individual.  In 
the  broad  and  brief  survey  attempted  in  these  chapters  a  few 
leading  facts  have  been  reviewed  about  the  youth  of  America : 
(i)  Everything  characteristic  of  the  early  settlers  was  derived 
directly  from  England,  those  in  the  South  representing  the 
aristocratic  traditions  of  king  and  court,  and  those  in  the  North 
reflecting  the  democratic  revolt  of  the  Puritans.  As  a  natural 
consequence  of  these  differences  the  writing  of  books  soon 
waned  in  Virginia  and  the  neighboring  colonies,  but  developed 
consistently  in  Massachusetts  and  New  England.  (2)  The 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      83 

attempt  of  the  Puritans  to  force  all  New  Englanders  to  think 
the  same  thoughts  and  worship  in  the  same  way  was  unsuc 
cessful  from  the  start,  and  the  most  interesting  writers  of  the 
seventeenth  century  reveal  the  spread  of  disturbing  influences.//^ 
The  first  three  chosen  as  examples  are  Thomas  Morton,  the 
frank  and  unscrupulous  enemy  of  the  Puritans ;  Nathaniel  Ward, 
a  sturdy  Puritan  who  was  alarmed  at  the  growth  of  anti- Puritan 
influences ;  and  Roger  Williams,  a  deeply  religious  preacher, 
who  rebelled  against  the  control  of  the  Church  in  New  England 
just  as  he  and  others  had  formerly  rebelled  in  the  mother 
country.  (3)  Even  in  the  first  half  century  a  good  deal  of  verse 
was  written:  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  "The  Day  of  Doom," 
as  a  mere  rimed  statement  of  Puritan  theology;  but  sometimes, 
as  in  the  case  of  Anne  Bradstreet  and  her  followers,  as  an 
expression  of  real  poetic  feeling.  (4)  With  the  passage  to  the 
eighteenth  century  the  community  was  clearly  slipping'  f r,om  / 
the  grasp  of  the  Puritans.  Evidence  is  ample  from  three  types 
of  colonists  :  the  Mathers,  who  were  fighting  a  desperate  but 
losing  battle  to  retain  control ;  Samuel  Sewall,  who,  although 
a  Puritan,  was  willing  to  accept  reasonable  changes ;  and  Mrs. 
Sarah  Kemble  Knight/,  who  said  little  at  the  time,  but  in  her 
private  journals  showed  the  existence  of  growing  disrespect  for 
the  old  habits  of  thought.  (5)  Benjamin  Franklin,  whose 
is  more  valuable  than  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors,  is 
completely  representative  of  the  complete  swing  away  from  reli 
gious  enthusiasm  to  a  hard-headed  worldliness  which  was  pre 
vailing  in  England  in  the  eighteenth  century.  (6)  On  the  other 
hand,  Crevecceur,  writing  just  before  the  Revolution,  sounded 
the  note  of  thanksgiving  to  the  Lord  that  America  was  differ 
ent  from  the  Old  World,  and  emphasized  what  were  the  condi 
tions  of  life  t^at  were  worth  fighting  to  save.  (7)  Finally,  out 
of  all  the  roster  of  talented  writers  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  Freneau  was  selected  as  the  most  gifted  poet  of  the  period, 
both  as  an  indirect  recorder  of  the  conflict  and  as  an  author  of 
poetry  on  native  themes  in  no  way  related  to  the  war. 


84          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

ADAMS,  H.  B.    Thomas  Jefferson  and  the  University  of  Virginia.   1888. 
FISKE,  JOHN.   The  Critical  Period  of  American  History.   Chap.  ii.    1888. 
OTIS,  WILLIAM  BRADLEY.   American  Verse,  1625-1807.    1909. 
PATTERSON,  SAMUEL  WHITE.    The  Spirit  of  the  American  Revolution 

as  Revealed  in  the  Poetry  of  the  Period  (contains  good  bibliography). 

1915. 

RICHARDSON,  C.  F.   American  Literature.    Chaps,  i,  vi,  viii.    1887. 
TUCKER,  S.  M.    In  chap,  ix  of  Cambridge  History  of  American  Litera 
ture,  Vol.  I,  Bk.  I. 
TYLER,  M.   C.     The  Literary   History  of   the   American    Revolution, 

chaps,  ix,  xix,  xx,  xxi,  xxvi,  xxviii,  xxix,  xxxi,  xxxii.    1897. 
VAN  TYNE,  C.  H.    The  Loyalists  in  the  American  Revolution.    1902. 
WENDELL,  BARRETT.    Literary  History  of  America,  chaps,  vii,  viii,  ix. 

1900. 
For  spirit  of  the  times  read  Familiar  Letters  of  John  and  Abigail 

Adams.    1876. 

General  Bibliography 

Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  457-467. 

Individual  Authors 

FRANCIS  HOPKINSON.    Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Occasional  Writings. 
1792.     3   vols.     The  latter  half  of   the  third  volume  contains  in 
separate  paging  (1-204)  his  Poems  on  Several  Subjects.   (There  has 
been  no  reprinting.) 
Available  Edition 

The  Old  Farm  and  the  New  Farm :  a  Political  Allegory  (edited  by 

B.  J.  Lossing).    1864. 
Biography  and  Criticism 

HILDEBURN,  C.  R.    A  Biographical  Sketch  of  Francis  Hopkinson. 

1878. 
MARBLE,  MRS.  A.  R.  Francis  Hopkinson,  Man  of  Affairs  and  Letters. 

New  England  Magazine,  Vol.  XXVII,  p.  289. 

TYLER,  M.  C.    The  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution, 
Vol.  I,  chap,  viii,  pp.  163-171  ;  chap,  xii,  pp.  279-292  ;  chap,  xxii, 
pp.  487-490;  and  Vol.  II,  chap,  xxx,  pp.  130-157. 
Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.    American  Poetry,  pp.  35-42,  604-606. 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  372-383. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  209-219. 

STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  VoL 
III,  pp.  236-251. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      85 

JOHN  TRUMBULL.  Poetical  Works.  2  vols.  Hartford,  1820.  Progress 
of  Dulness.  Part  I,  The  Rare  Adventures  of  Tom  Brainless,  1772; 
Part  II,  The  Life  and  Character  of  Dick  Hairbrain  of  Finical  Mem 
ory,  1773;  Part  III,  The  Adventures  of  Miss  Harriet  Simper,  1773. 
M'Fingal :  a  Modern  Epic  Poem.  Canto  I ;  or,  The  Town  Meeting 
(includes  what  is  now  Cantos  I  and  II).  1776.  Completed  with 
Cantos  III  and  IV.  1782. 

Available  Edition 

M'Fingal;  an  Epic  Poem  (edited  by  B.  J.  Lossing).   1860,  1864,  1881. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.  American  Poetry,  pp.  43-57,  58-88,  606-610, 

611-614. 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  395-408. 
DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  308-319. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 

Ill,  pp.  422-429 ;  Vol.  IV,  pp.  89-92. 

PHILIP  FRENEAU.  Poems.  Printed  for  the  Princeton  Historical  Asso 
ciation.  F.  L.  Pattee,  editor.  1902-1907.  3  vols. 

Available  Edition 

Poems   of   Philip    Freneau    relating   to   the   American    Revolution. 
E.  A.  Duyckinck,  editor.    1865. 

Bibliography 

A  volume  compiled  by  Victor  H.  Paltsits.   1903. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

AUSTIN,  MARY  S.    Philip  Freneau,  the  Poet  of  the  Revolution.   1901. 
DELANCEY,  E.  F.    Philip  Freneau,  the  Huguenot  Patriot-Poet,  etc. 

Proceedings  of  the  Hiiguenot  Soc.  of  Amer.,  Vol.  II,  No.  2.    1891. 
FORMAN,  SAMUEL  E.    The  Political  Activities  of  Philip  Freneau. 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Stiidies,  Ser.  20,  Nos.  9,  to.    1902. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.    American  Poetry,  pp.  89-117,  614-618. 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  431-448. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  327-348. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 

Ill,  pp.  445-457. 

TIMOTHY  DWIGHT.  There  are  no  recent  editions  of  Dwight.  These 
appeared  originally  as  follows  :  The  Conquest  of  Canaan,  1 784 ;  The 
Triumph  of  Infidelity,  1788;  Greenfield  Hill,  1794;  Travels  in  New 
England  and  New  York,  1 823. 


86          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Biography  and  Criticism 

DWIGHT,  W.  T.  and  S.  E.    Memoir  prefixed  to  Dwight's  Theology. 

4  vols. 
SPRAGUE,  W.  B.    The  Life   of  Timothy  Dwight,  in  Vol.  XIV  of 

Sparks's  Library  of  American  Biography. 
SPRAGUE,  W.  B.    Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,  Vol.  II. 
TYLER,  M.  C.   Three  Men  of  Letters,  pp.  72-127.    1895. 
Introduction  to  the  Poems  of  Philip  Freneau  (edited  by  F.  L.  Pattee), 

Vol.  I,  pp.  c,  ci.    1902. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.   American  Poetry,  pp.  118-124,  618-621. 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  409-420. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  357-365- 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 

Ill,  pp.  426-429  and  463-483. 

JOEL  BARLOW.  His  epic  is  accessible  only  in  early  editions.  His  poetical 
work  appeared  originally  as  follows:  The  Vision  of  Columbus,  1787; 
The  Columbiad,  1807;  Hasty  Pudding,  1847. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

TODD,  C.  B.    Life  and  Letters  of  Joel  Barlow.   1886. 
TYLER,  M.  C.   Three  Men  of  Letters,  pp.  131-180.   1895. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.   American  Poetry,  pp.  125-135,  621-624. 

CAIRNS,  W.  B.    Early  American  Writers,  pp.  421-430. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  391-404. 

STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 
Ill,  pp.  422-429,  and  Vol.  IV,  pp.  46-57. 

Literary  Treatment  of  the  Period 
Drama 

In   Representative   Plays   by  American  Dramatists   (edited  by   M.  J. 

Moses),  Vol.  I.    1918. 

The  Group ;  a  Farce,  by  Mrs.  Mercy  Warren. 
The  Battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  by  H.  H.  Brackenridge. 
The    Fall   of   British   Tyranny;   or,   American    Liberty,   by  John 

Leacock. 

The  Politician  Outwitted,  by  Samuel  Low. 
The  Contrast,  by  Royall  Tyler.1 
Andre",  by  William  Dunlap.1 

1  Also  in  Representative  American  Plays  (edited  by  A.  H.  Quinn).    1917. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  87 

Fiction 

CHURCHILL,  WINSTON.   Richard  Carvel. 

COOPER,  J.  F.    Lionel  Lincoln;  or,  The  Leaguer  of  Boston. 

COOPER,  J.  F.   The  Pilot. 

COOPER,  J.  F.   The  Spy. 

FORD,  P.  L.  Janice  Meredith. 

HARTE,  BRET.   Thankful  Blossom. 

JEWETT,  SARAH  ORNE.   The  Tory  Lover. 

KENNEDY,  J.  P.    Horse  Shoe  Robinson. 

MITCHELL,  S.  WEIR.    Hugh  Wynne. 

SIMMS,  W.  GILMORE.   The  Partisan. 

SIMMS,  W.  GILMORE.   The  Scout. 

Poetry 

Poems  of  American  History  (edited  by  B.  E.  Stevenson),  pp.  125-265. 
American  History  by  American  Poets  (edited  by  M.  V.  Wallington), 
Vol.  I,  pp.  125-293. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

In  a  survey  course  enough  material  is  presented  for  Hopkinson, 
Trumbull,  D wight,  and  Barlow  in  the  collections  mentioned  in  the 
Book  List  for  this  chapter.  The  only  reprint  available  of  Lewis's 
interesting  "Journey  from  Patapsco  to  Annapolis"  is  in  "American 
Poetry"  (P.  H.  Boynton,  editor),  pp.  24-29.  These  poems  are 
chiefly  significant  for  the  combination  of  English  form  and  American 
subject  matter. 

Compare  Trumbull's  comments  on  the  education  of  girls  with 
the  corresponding  passage  by  Mrs.  Malaprop,  in  Sheridan's  "  The 
Rivals,"  and  with  Fitz-Greene  Halleck's  comments  on  the  education  of 
Fanny,  in  the  poem  of  that  name  (see  "American  Poetry,"  pp.  127, 
128,  and  155,  156). 

Compare  Dwight's  "  Farmer's  Advice  to  the  Villagers,"  "  Green 
field  Hill,"  Pt.  VI,  with  Benjamin  Franklin's  "The  Way  to  Wealth." 

Compare  the  nationalistic  note  in  the  seventh  and  ninth  books  of 
Barlow's  "Vision  of  Columbus"  with  that  in  Timrod's  "  Ethnogenesis  " 
and  that  in  Moody 's  "  Ode  in  Time  of  Hesitation."  Do  the  dates 
of  the  three  poems  suggest  a  progressive  change  ?  (See  "  American 
Poetry,"  pp.  123,  349,  and  577.) 

Read  Freneau's  more  bitter  war  satires  in  comparison  with  Jona 
than  Odell's  "Congratulation"  and  "The  American  Times,"  for 
which  see  "American  Poetry,"  pp.  78-83. 


88          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Read  Freneau's  more  jovial  war  satires  in  comparison  with  Whit- 
tier's  "  Letter  from  a  Missionary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  " 
("American  Poetry,"  p.  255);  John  R.  Thompson's  "On  to  Rich 
mond"  ("American  Poetry,"  p.  325);  Edmund  C.  Stedman's  "  How 
Old  Brown  took  Harper's  Ferry"  ("American  Poetry,"  p.  317);  and 
Lowell's  "  Biglow  Papers." 

Read  Freneau's  "  Pictures  of  Columbus "  in  comparison  with 
Lowell's  "Columbus"  ("American  Poetry,"  p.  382);  Lanier's  "Son 
nets  on  Columbus"  ("American  Poetry,"  p.  458);  and  Joaquin  Miller's 
"  Columbus  "  ("American  Poetry,"  p.  564). 

"  The  Progress  of  Balloons  "  derives  its  title  from  a  whole  series 
of  preceding  "progress"  poems.  Cite  others  and  compare  them  as 
you  can. 

With  reference  to  Freneau's  diction  in  nature  passages  as  com 
pared  with  that  of  Ames  and  Lewis  in  the  text,  read  Wordsworth's 
essay  on  "Poetic  Diction"  prefatory  to  the  lyrical  ballads  of  1798, 
with  which  Freneau  agreed  and  which  he  anticipated  in  certain  of 
his  poems. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  EARLY  DRAMA 

In  the  growth  of  most  national  literatures  the  theater  has 
developed  side  by  side  with  the  drama,  the  stage  doing  for  the 
play  what  the  printing  press  did  for  the  essay,  poem,  and  novel. 
But  in  America,  the  land  of  a  transplanted  civilization,  the 
order  was  changed  and  the  first  plays  were  supplied  from 
abroad  just  as  the  other  forms  of  literature  were.  In  the  history 
of  the  American  stage,  therefore,  the  successive  steps  were 
the  presentation  of  English  plays  by  American  amateurs  in 
regular  audience  rooms  with  improvised  stages ;  then  the  de 
velopment  of  semiprofessional  and  wholly  professional  com 
panies  who  played  short  seasons  at  irregular  intervals ;  then 
the  erection  of  special  playhouses ;  and  finally  the  formation 
of  more  permanent  professional  companies,  both  English  and 
American,  —  all  of  which  took  place  in  the  course  of  nearly 
two  generations  before  the  emergence  of  any  native  American 
drama.  Recent  investigations  have  so  frequently  pushed  back 
the  years  of  first  performances,  playhouses,  and  plays  that  now 
one  can  offer  such  dates  only  as  subject  to  further  revision. 

According  to  the  "  Cambridge  History  of  American  Litera 
ture,"  "there  seem  to  have  been  theatrical  performances  in  this 
country  since  1703."  Paul  Leicester  Ford  in  his  "Washington 
and  the  Theater"  says,  "that  there  was  play-acting  in  New 
York,  and  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  before  1702,  are 
unquestioned  facts."  In  1718  Governor  Spottswood  of  Virginia 
gave  an  entertainment  on  the  king's  birthday,  the  feature  of 
which  was  a  play,  probably  acted  by  the  students  of  William 
and  Mary  College,  as  there  are  references  to  later  events  of 
this  sort.  The  Virginia  governor's  patronage  bore  different 


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THE  EARLY  DRAMA  91 

fruit  from  the  early  indorsement  of  playing  in  staid  Massa 
chusetts,  for  Samuel  Sewall  recorded  in  his  diary  of  March  2, 
1714,  a  protest  at  the  acting  of  a  play  in  the  council  chamber. 
"  Let  not  Christian  Boston,"  he  admonished,  "  goe  beyond 
Heathen  Rome  in  the  practice  of  Shamefull  Vanities."  On 
the  other  hand,  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  had  its  own  theater 
before  1720,  New  York  enjoyed  professional  acting  and  a 
playhouse  by  1732,  and  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the  use 
of  the  courtroom  was  frequent  in  the  two  seasons  before  the 
opening  of  a  theater  in  the  winter  of  1736.  These  slight  be 
ginnings,  with  further  undertakings  in  Philadelphia,  doubtless 
gave  Lewis  Hallam,  the  London  actor,  courage  to  venture  over 
with  his  company  in  1752.  With  his  twelve  players  he  brought 
a  repertory  of  twenty  plays  and  eight  farces,  the  majority  of 
which  had  never  been  presented  in  America  ;  and  since  the  year 
of  their  arrival  the  American  theater  has  had  a  consecutive  and 
broadening  place  in  the  life  of  the  people. 

The  beginnings  of  drama  in  America,  to  distinguish  them  from 
the  early  life  of  the  theater,  are  not  quite  clearly  known.  The 
first  romantic  drama,  and  the  first  play  written  by  an  American 
and  produced  by  a  professional  company,  was  Thomas  Godfrey's 
"The  Prince  of  Parthia,"  completed  by  1759  and  acted  in 
1 767  at  the  South wark  Theater,  Philadelphia.  The  first  drama 
on  native  American  material  —  an  unproduced  problem  play  — 
was  Robert  Rogers's  "  Ponteach,"  published  in  London  in  1766. 
The  first  American  comedy  to  be  produced  by  a  professional 
company  was)(Royall  Tyler's  "The  Contrast,"  acted  in  1787 
at  the  John  Street  Theater,  New  York.  The  first  professional 
American  playwright  was  William  Dunlap  (1766-1839),  author 
and  producer,  who  wrote,  adapted,  and  translated  over  sixty 
plays,  operas,  sketches,  farces,  and  interludes,  of  which  at  least 
fifty  were  produced  and  nearly  thirty  have  been  published.  The 
first  actor  and  playwright  of  more  than  local  prominence  was 
John  Howard  Payne  (1791-1852),  more  original  than  Dunlap 
and  equally  prolific,  with  one  or  two  great  successes  and  eighteen 


92          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

published  plays  to  his  credit.  The  history  of  the  American 
drama,  as  yet  unwritten,  will  be  a  big  work  when  it  is  fully 
done,  for  the  output  has  been  very  large.  Three  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  plays  are  known  to  have  been  published  by  1830 
and  nearly  twice  that  number  to  have  been  played  by  1860. 
In  the  remainder  of  this  chapter,  the  aim  of  which  is  to  induce 
study  of  plays  within  the  reach  of  the  average  college  class, 
four  dramas  will  be  discussed  because  they  are  interesting  in 
themselves  and  because  they  are  early  representatives  of  types 
which  still  prevail. 

The  first  is  "  The  Prince  of  Parthia,"  a  romantic  tragedy  by 
Thomas  Godfrey  (1736-1763).  He  was  the  son  of  a  scientist,  a 
youth  of  cultured  companions,  West  the  painter  and  Hopkinson 
the  poet-composer,  and  his  almost  certain  attendance  at  per 
formances  of  the  American  company  of  actors  led  him,  in 
addition  to  his  juvenile  poems,  to  make  his  ambitious  attempt 
at  drama.  "  The  Prince  of  Parthia  "  is  evidently  imitative,  and 
yet  no  moje  so  than  most  American  poems,  essays,  novels,  and 
plays  written  in  the  generation  to  which  Godfrey  belonged  until 
his  early  death  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven.  The  Hallam  and 
American  companies  had  played  more  of  Shakespeare  than  any 
other  one  thing,  somewhat  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  and  more 
or  less  of  Restoration  drama ;  and  these  combined  influences 
appear  in  Godfrey's  work.  There  are  traces  from  "  Hamlet," 
signs  of  "  Macbeth,"  evidences  of  "  The  Maid's  Tragedy,"  and 
responses  to  the  Restoration  interest  in  pseudo-oriental  subjects. 
Yet  the  play  should  not  be  dismissed  with  these  comments  as 
though  they  were  a  condemnation.  What  is  more  to  the  point 
is  the  fact  that  ''The  Prince  "  is  very  admirable  as  a  piece  of 
imitative  writing.  The  verse  is  fluent  and  at  times  stately.  The 
construction  as  a  whole  is  well  considered.  The  characters  are 
consistent,  and  their  actions  are  based  on  sufficient  motives. 
Many  a  later  American  dramatist  fell  far  short  of  Godfrey  both 
in  excellence  of  style  and  in  firmness  of  structure  and  character 
ization.  Had  Godfrey  lived  and  had  he  passed  out  of  his 


THE  EARLY  DRAMA  93 

natural  deference  for  models,  he  might  have  done  dramatic 
writing  quite  equal  to  that  of  many  a  well-known  successor.  The 
twentieth-century  mind  is  unaccustomed  to  the  "tragedy  of 
blood."  A  play  with  a  king  and  two  princely  sons  at  once  in 
love  with  the  same  captive  maiden,  a  jealous  queen,  a  vengeful 
stepson,  and  a  court  full  of  intriguing  nobles,  a  story  which 
ends  with  the  accumulating  deaths  of  the  six  leading  characters, 
hardly  appeals  to  theatergoers  accustomed  to  dramas  which  are 
more  economical  in  their  material.  But  Godfrey  should  be  com 
pared  with  his  own  contemporaries,  and,  all  things  considered, 
he  stands  the  comparison  well.  The  type  of  poetic  drama  he 
attempted  reoccurs  later  in  the  work  of  Robert  Montgomery  Bird, 
Nathaniel  Parker  Willis,  George  Henry  Boker,  and  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  and  reappears  in  the  present  generation  in  plays  by  such 
men  as  Richard  Hovey  and  Percy  Mackaye. 

The  second  notable  play  was  Robert  Rogers's  (1730?-! 795) 
"  Ponteach  :  or  the  Savages  of  America,"  published  in  London 
in  1766.  The  fact  that  it  was  not  produced  at  the  time  must 
be  laid  to  managerial  timidity  rather  than  to  defects  in  the  play, 
for  it  has  some  of  the  merits  of  Godfrey's  work  in  the  details 
and  construction.  Two  reasons  sufficient  to  put  a  cautious  man 
ager  on  guard  were  its  criticism  of  the  English  and  its  treatment 
of  the  churchman.  For  the  play  as  a  whole  is  a  sharp  indict 
ment  of  the  white  man's  avarice  in  his  transactions  with  the 
Indians,  in  the  course  of  which  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  is  by 
no  means  the  least  guilty.  Traders,  hunters,  and  governors 
combine  in  malice  and  deceit,  undermining  the  character  of  the 
Indians  and  at  the  same  time  embittering  them  against  their  Eng 
lish  conquerors.  A  play  with  this  burden,  written  so  soon  after 
the  Seven  Years'  War,  had  no  more  chance  of  being  produced 
than  a  pacifist  production  did  from  1914  to  1918.  Godfrey's 
treatment  of  the  Indians  seems  at  first  glance  unconvincing, 
but  this  is  chiefly  because  of  the  way  he  made  them  talk.  All 
the  savages  and  all  the  different  types  of  white  rascal  hold 
forth  in  the  same  elevated  rhetorical  discourse.  This  fact,  which 


94          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

constitutes  a  valid  criticism,  should  be  tempered  by  the  recollec 
tion  that  generations  were  yet  to  pass  before  anything  lifelike  was 
to  be  achieved  in  dialect  writing.  Cooper's  Indians  are  quite  as 
stately  in  speech  as  Rogers's.  Yet,  like  Cooper,  Rogers  endowed 
them  with  native  dignity,  self-control,  tribal  loyalty,  and  rever 
ence  for  age  as  well  as  with  treachery  and  the  lust  for  blood. 
If  "  Ponteach  "  had  been  an  indictment  of  the  French  instead 
of  the  English,  it  is  a  fair  guess  that  American  audiences  would 
have  seen  it  and  greeted  it  "with  universal  applause."  As  an 
Indian  play  it  was  followed  by  many  successors  —  Pocahontas 
alone  was  the  theme  of  four  plays  between  1808  and  1848.  As 
a  race  play  it  broke  the  trail  not  only  for  these  but  for  others 
which  branched  off  to  the  negro  theme  —  from  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin"  and  "The  Octoroon,"  before  the  Civil  War,  to  Sheldon's 
"The  Nigger,"  of  1911.  As  a  problem-purpose  play  it  was 
the  first  American  contribution  to  a  long  series  which  never 
flags  entirely  and  which  always  multiplies  in  years  when  class 
or  political  feeling  runs  high. 

The  third  notable  American  play  —  a  success  of  1787  and 
the  first  of  many  successes  in  its  field  —  was  "The  Contrast," 
a  comedy  by  Royall  Tyler  (-1757-18  26) .  Its  purport  is  indicated 
in  the  opening  lines  of  the  prologue  : 

EXULT  each  patriot  heart !  —  this  night  is  shewn 

A  piece,  which  we  may  fairly  call  our  own ; 

Where  the  proud  titles  of  "  My  Lord  !  Your  Grace  !  " 

To  humble  Mr.  and  plain  Sir  give  place. 

Our  Author  pictures  not  from  foreign  climes 

The  fashions,  or  the  follies  of  the  times ; 

But  has  confin'd  the  subject  of  his  work 

To  the  gay  scenes  —  the  circles  of  New  York. 

There  is  a  complacency  of  pioneership  in  this  and  a  hint  at 
servility  among  other  playwrights  which  are  not  strictly  justified 
by  the  facts,  but  the  prologue  is  none  the  less  interesting  for 
this.  It  is  quite  as  true  to  its  period  as  the  content  of  the  play 


THE  EARLY  DRAMA  95 

is,  for  it  displays  the  independence  of  conscious  revolt,  exactly 
the  note  of  Freneau's  "  Literary  Importation  "  written  only  two 
years  earlier  (see  p.  78)  and  a  constantly  recurrent  one  in 
American  literature  for  the  next  fifty  years. 

>•— .-Tyler's  play  is  a  comedy  of  manners  setting  forth  "  the 
contrast  between  a  gentleman  who  has  read  Chesterfield  and 
received  the  polish  of  Europe  and  an  unpolished,  untraveled 
American."  This  is  reenforced  by  the  antithesis  between  an 
unscrupulous  coquette  and  a  feminine  model  of  all  the  virtues, 
and  between  a  popinjay  servant  and  a  crude  countryman,  the 
original  stage  Yankee.  As  far  as  the  moral  is  concerned  the 
play  makes  its  point  not  because  the  good  characters  are  ad 
mirable  but  because  the  bad  ones  are  so  vapid.  Manly,  the  hero, 
is  well  disposed  of  by  his  frivolous  sister's  statement :  "His 
conversation  is  like  a  rich,  old-fashioned  brocade,  it  will  stand 
alone  ;  every  sentence  is  a  sentiment  "  ;  and  Maria,  the  heroine, 
is  revealed  by  her  own  observation  that  "  the  only  safe  asylum 
a  woman  of  delicacy  can  find  is  in  the  arms  of  a  man  of  honor." 
Yet  the  contrasts  lead  to  good  dramatic  situations  and  to  some 
amusing  comedy,  and  the  play  is  further  interesting  because 
of  the  fund  of  allusion  to  what  Tyler  considered  both  worthless 
and  worthy  English  literary  influences.  The  extended  reference 
to  "The  School  for  Scandal  "  as  seen  at  the  theater  by  Jonathan 

,  is  acknowledgment  enough  of  Tyler's  debt  to  an  English  master. 
^lThe  Contrast "  is  the  voice  of  young  America  protesting  its 
superiority  to  old  England  and  old  Europe.  It  had  been  audible 
before  the  date  of  Tyler's  play,  and  it  was  to  be  heard  again 
and  again  for  the  better  part  of  a  century  and  in  all  forms  of 
literature.  In  drama  the  most  famous  play  of  the  type  in  the 
next  two  generations  was  Anna  C.  O.  Mowatt's  "  Fashion"  of 
1845.  "  Contrast  "  was  furthermore  a  forerunner  of  many  later 
plays  which  were  descriptive  without  being  satirical,  a  large 
number  of  which  carried  New  York  in  their  titles  as  well  as  in 
their  contents.  These  doubtless  looked  back  quite  directly  to  the 
repeated  successes  of  Pierce  Egan's  "  Life  in  London,"  but  they 


96          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

had  all  to  acknowledge  that  Tyler  was  the  early  and  conspicuous 
playwright  who  had 

confin'd  the  subject  of  his  work 
To  the  gay  scenes  —  the  circles  of  New  York. 

The  fourth  and  last  play  for  any  detailed  comment  here  is 
"Andre"'  (1798)  by  William  Dunlap  (1766-1839).  Dunlap 
asked  for  recognition,  as  Tyler  had  done,  on  nationalistic 
grounds, 

A  Native  Bard,  a  native  scene  displays, 
And  claims  your  candour  for  his  daring  lays ; 

and  he  took  heed,  as  Rogers  seems  not  to  have  done,  of  the 
risk  he  was  running  in  entering  the  perilous  straits  of  political 
controversy  in  which  "  Ponteach  "  was  stranded  before  it  had 
reached  the  theater : 

O,  may  no  party  spirit  blast  his  views, 

Or  turn  to  ill  the  meanings  of  the  Muse ; 

She  sings  of  wrongs  long  past,  Men  as  they  were, 

To  instruct,  without  reproach,  the  Men  that  are ; 

Then  judge  the  Story  by  the  genius  shown, 

And  praise,  or  damn  it,  for  its  worth  alone. 

Party  feeling  was  high  at  the  time  over  the  opposing  claims 
of  France  and  England  —  "  The  Rival  Suitors  for  America,"  as 
Freneau  called  them  in  his  verses  of  1795.  "  Hail  Columbia," 
by  Joseph  Hopkinson,  made  an  immediate  hit  when  sung  at 
an  actors'  benefit  less  than  four  weeks  after  the  production  of 
"  AndreY'  and  made  it  by  an  appeal  to  broad  national  feeling. 
And  Dunlap,  after  a  slip  of  sentiment  in  the  first  performance, 
kept  clear  of  politics,  and  showed  tact  as  well  as  daring  by  mak 
ing  the  Briton  heroic,  though  a  spy,  and  by  his  fine  treatment 
of  the  unnamed  "  General,"  who  was  evidently  Washington. 
Dunlap's  play  showed  a  ready  appreciation  of  theatrical  effec 
tiveness.  It  was  the  work  of  a  playmaker  rather  than  a  poet, 
and  the  verse  had  none  of  the  elevation  of  Godfrey's  or  Rogers's. 


THE  EARLY  DRAMA  97 

It  was  far  better  than  the  declamatory  stage  efforts  of  the 
Revolutionary  years  by  Brackenridge,  Leacock,  Low,  and 
Mercy  Warren,  and  it  was  the  best  early  specimen  of  the 
historical  romance  for  which  there  is  always  a  ready  patronage. 

Dunlap  is  more  significant  as  an  all-round  man  in  the  early 
history  of  the  American  theater  than  as  a  pure  dramatist.  He 
was  a  good  judge  of  what  the  public  wanted,  and  fairly  able  to 
achieve  it.  What  he  could  not  write  he  could  translate  or  adapt. 
He  turned  Schiller's  "  Don  Carlos  "  into  English,  and  it  failed  ; 
but  he  made  a  great  success  of  Zschokke's  "  Abaellino  "  and 
translated  no  less  than  thirteen  plays  of  Kotzebue.  A  comic 
opera,  a  dramatic  satire,  a  farce,  or  an  interlude  seemed  all  one 
to  him  in  point  of  ease  or  difficulty.  From  1796  to  1803  he 
produced  more  than  four  plays  a  year  under  his  own  manage 
ment  at  the  Park  Theater  in  New  York.  He  continued  as  a 
manager  till  1805  and  was  connected  with  the  theater  again  in 
1810-1811.  Finally,  to  cap  all,  in  1832  he  published  in  two 
volumes  his  "  History  of  the  American  Theater,"  which,  though 
inaccurate  in  many  details,  is  full  of  the  personal  recollections 
of  men  and  events  that  no  amount  of  exact  scholarship  could 
now  unearth. 

The  really  auspicious  beginnings  in  American  play-writing 
up  to  1800  were  hardly  followed  up  in  the  period  before  the 
interruption  of  the  drama  by  the  Civil  War.  One  man  stands 
out,  John  Howard  Payne  (1791-1852).  Starting  as  a  precocious 
boy  actor  and  a  dramatist  whose  first  play  was  staged  at  the 
age  of  fifteen,  he  developed  into  a  reputation  greater  than  that 
of  Dunlap,  but  in  the  perspective  of  time  little  more  enduring. 
His  "  Brutus  "  was  played  for  years  by  well-known  tragedians, 
and  his  "  Charles  II,"  in  which  Washington  Irving  had  a  hand, 
was  long  successful  as  a  comedy.  But  he  was  too  prolific  for 
high  excellence,  and  he  did  nothing  new.  Now  and  then  men 
who  wrote  abundantly  produced  single  plays  of  rather  high 
merit  though  of  imitative  quality,  such  as  Robert  Montgomery 
Bird's  "  Broker  of  Bogota."  There  was  a  generous  output,  but  a 


98          A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

low  level  of  production  ;  tragedies,  historical  plays,  comedies  of 
manners,  local  dramas,  social  satires,  melodramas,  and  farces 
followed  in  steady  flow.  Successful  novels  of  Cooper,  Simms, 
Mrs.  Stowe,  and  writers  of  lesser  note  were  quickly  staged,  but 
no  one  of  undoubted  distinction  came  to  the  fore.  Writers  in 
other  fields,  like  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis,  the  essayist,  George 
Henry  Boker,  the  poet,  and  Julia  Ward  Howe,  turned  their 
hands  at  times  to  play-writing  with  moderate  success.  But  it 
is  significant  that  the  conspicuous  names  of  the  period  were 
names  of  actors  and  producers  rather  than  of  playwrights.  The 
history  of  the  American  stage  has  been  unbroken  up  to  the 
present  time,  but  it  was  not  until  near  the  end  of  the  century 
that  the  literary  material  presented  on  the  stage  became  more 
than  a  vehicle  for  the  enterprise  of  managers  and  the  talents 
of  actors.  This  later  stage  will  be  briefly  discussed  in  one  of 
the  closing  chapters  of  this  book. 


BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

CRAWFORD,  M.  C.    The  Romance  of  the  American  Theater.    1913. 
DUNLAP,  WILLIAM.    History  of  the  American  Theater.    1832. 
HUTTON,  LAURENCE.    Curiosities  of  the  American  Stage.   1891. 
MOSES,  MONTROSE  J.    Famous  Actor- Families  in  America.    1906. 
MOSES,  MONTROSE  J.    The  American  Dramatist.    1911. 
SEILHAMER,   G.   O.     History   of   the   American  Theater,   1749-1797. 

3  vols.    1888-1891. 
TYLER,  MOSES  COIT.    Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution, 

2  vo's.    Vol.  II,  chap,  xxxii. 
WINTER,  WILLIAM.   The  Wallet  of  Time.    2  vols.    1913. 

Collections 

MOSES,  MONTROSE  J.    Representative  Plays  by  American  Dramatists, 

Vol.  I.    1918.   Vols.  II  and  III  in  press. 
QUINN,  ARTHUR  H.    Representative  American  Plays.   1917. 

Special  Articles 

GAY,  F.  L.   An  Early  Virginia  Play.  Nation,  Vol.  LXXXVIII,  p.  136. 

1909. 

LAW,  ROBERT  A.   Early  American  Prologues  and  Epilogues.  Nation, 
Vol.  XCVIII,  p.  463.    1914. 


THE  EARLY  DRAMA  99 

LAW,  ROBERT  A.  Charleston  Theaters,  1735-1766.  Nation,  Vol.  XCIX, 
p.  278.  1914. 

MATTHEWS,  ALBERT.  Early  Plays  at  Harvard.  Nation^ Q\.  LXXXVIII, 
p.  295.  1909. 

NEIDIG,  W.  J.  The  First  Play  in  America.  Nation,  Vol.  LXXXVIII, 
p.  86.  1909. 

QUINN,  ARTHUR  H.  The  Early  Drama,  1756-1860.  Cambridge  His 
tory  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  Bk.  II,  chap.  ii. 


TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

The  best  available  sources  of  material  are  the  collection  of  A.  H. 
Quinn,  which  contains  three  of  the  plays  mentioned  in  detail,  and  the 
first  volume  of  the  collection  of  M.  J.  Moses,  which  contains  all  four, 
and  a  half  dozen  more  from  the  early  period. 

There  is  no  need  of  suggesting  specific  topics  in  connection  with 
the  different  plays.  Each  one  may  be  read  with  reference  to  its  story 
content  —  the  kind  of  plot,  of  characters,  of  scenes,  of  episodes  —  or 
with  reference  to  the  skill  with  which  it  was  written  —  the  construc 
tion,  the  characterization,  the  supply  of  motives  for  action,  the  dia 
logue,  the  prose  or  verse  style  —  or  with  reference  to  the  personality 
of  the  author  and  the  "signs  of  the  times" — the  purpose  of  the 
play,  the  moral,  intellectual,  and  aesthetic  character  and  prejudices  of 
the  author. 

If  the  student  is  working  toward  a  report  —  written  or  oral  —  he 
will  arrive  at  a  satisfactory  result  only  as  he  limits  himself  to  one 
very  definite  subdivision  and  presents  his  findings  in  detail. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CHARGES  BROCKDEN  BROWN 

The  first  professional  man  of  letters  in  America,  and  the 
last  of  note  who  was  born  before  the  Revolution,  was  Charles 
Brockden  Brown.  His  short  Mfe,  from  1771  to  1810,  was 
almost  exactly  contemporary  with  the  productive  middle  half 
of  Freneau's  long  career.  That  he  earned  his  living  by  his 
pen  is  a  matter  of  incidental  interest  in  American  literary  his 
tory  ;  the  more  important  facts  are  that  he  looms  large  in  the 
chronicles  of  the  American  novel  and  that  he  was  a  factor  in 
the  development  of  the  American  periodical. 

He  was  born  in  Philadelphia.  "  His  parents,"  says  Dunlap, 
whose  whole  biography  is  written  with  the  same  labored  ele 
vation,  "  were  virtuous,  religious  people,  and  as  such  held  a 
respectable  rank  in  society ;  and  he  could  trace  back  a  long 
line  of  ancestry  holding  the  same  honorable  station."  He  was 
a  delicate,  precocious  child,  and  under  the  prevalent  forcing 
process  of  the  day  was  cultivated  into  an  infant  prodigy.  By 
the  time  that  he  was  sixteen  he  was  well  schooled  in  the 
classics ;  he  had  versified  parts  of  Job,  the  Psalms,  and  Ossian ; 
he  had  sketched  plans  for  three  epic  poems ;  and  he  had  per 
manently  undermined  his  health.  At  eighteen  he  was  studying 
law,  indulging  in  debate  and  in  philosophical  speculation,  and 
was  the  author  of  his  first  published  magazine  article.  In  the 
next  few  years  —  the  dates  are  not  exactly  recorded  —  he  aban 
doned  the  law ;  at  one  time  gave  thanks  that  because  of  his 
feeble  health  he  was  free  from  the  ordinary  temptations  of 
youth,  and  at  another,  for  the  same  reason,  contemplated 
suicide ;  and  finally,  to  escape  the  urgent  counsels  of  his 
advisers,  he  left  his  home  city  for  New  York.  Here  he  fell 


CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN  i'oi 


in  with  congenial  literary  companions,  joined  the  Friendly 
Club,  in  which  among  other  benefits  he  was  the  recipient  of 
friendly  criticism  for  his  "  disputatiousness  and  dogmatism," 
and  in  the  stirring  period  of  the  'QO'S  began  to  dream  Utopian 
dreams  of  a  new  heaven  on  the  old  earth.  . 

His  active  authorship,  which  began  with  1797,  was  varied 
and  incessant.  It  included  between  then  and  1810  a  large 
number  of  magazine  contributions  (many  of  them  serials),  she 
novels  (all  published  between  1798  and  1801),  several  other 
volumes  more  or  less  in  the  nature  of  hack  work,  and  nine 
years  of  periodical  editorship.  He  wrote  with  the  confidence 
of  youth  for  a  youthful  and  uncritical  reading  public,  with  the 
natural  result  that  his  output  was  more  bulky  than  distinguished. 
He  was  immensely  communicative  :  filled  with  "  the  rapture 
with  "which  he  held  communion  with  his  own  thoughts  "  —  com 
mitting  them  to  paper  in  a  copious  journal,  in  circumstantial 
letters,  and  in  the  rivulet  which  flowed  from  his  pen  into  the 
forgotten  gulf  of  magazinedom.  In  1799  he  was  working  on 
five  different  novels,  although  from  April  until  the  end  of  the 
next  year  he  was  editing  The  Monthly  Magazine  and  Ameri 
can  Review.  Before  he  was  thirty  his  reputation  was  established 
and  his  important  work  was  done.  In  1801  he  returned  to 
Philadelphia  with  achieved  success  as  a  reply  to  the  friends 
who  had  tried  to  dissuade  him  from  professional  writing. 
There  he  undertook  in  1803  another  editorial  venture  in  The 
Literary  Magazine  and  American  Register.  From  the  excited 
young  radical  of  a  half-dozen  years  earlier,  disciple  of  William 
Godwin,  he  had  become  by  some  reaction  a  fulfiller  of  his 
pious  ancestry.  In  his  statement  of  principles  he  made  it  clear 
that  he  would  rather  be  respectable  than  disturbing  in  his 
sentiments.  He  referred  to  the  recent  bold  attacks  on  "  the 
foundations  of  religion  and  morality,"  declared  that  he  would 
conserve  these  and  proscribe  everything  that  offended  against 
them,  and  concluded  (using  the  editorial  third  person)  :  "His 
poetical  pieces  may  be  dull,  but  they  at  least  shall  be  free  from 


.10-2  :,:  A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

voluptuousness  or  sensuality ;  and  his  prose,  whether  seconded 
or  not  by  genius  and  knowledge,  shall  scrupulously  aim  at 
the  promotion  of  public  and  private  virtue."  Even  under  the 
weight  of  this  unmitigated  morality  the  magazine  was  continued 
for  four  years.  Brown  had,  however,  stepped  down  from  the 
level  of  an  author  who  was  in  any  degree  creative  to  a  plat 
form  for  dispensing  commonplace  conservatism  and  useful 
knowledge.  The  decline  is  further  proven  by  the  nature  of 
his  last  industrious  ventures :  "  The  American  Register,  or 
General  Repository  of  History,  Politics  and  Science  "  (Phila 
delphia,  1807-1811,  seven  vols.)  and  a  prospectus  in  1809 
of  an  unfinished  "  System  of  General  Geography ;  containing 
a  Topographical,  Statistical  and  Descriptive  Survey  of  the 
Earth."  With  the  handicap  of  his  early  impaired  health  and 
under  the  burden  of  his  self-imposed  schedule  his  strength 
failed  him,  and  he  died  in  1810,  an  overworked  consumptive. 
It  is  quite  evident,  however,  that  his  distinctive  work  was  done. 
If  old  age  had  been  granted  him,  unless  some  amazing  reversal 
of  form  had  taken  place,  it  would  have  been  a  long,  industri 
ous,  and  ultraconventional  anticlimax  to  the  rather  brilliant 
promise  of  his  young  manhood. 

In  entering  the  field  of  fiction-writing  Brown  took  his  place 
in  the  newest  literary  movement  in  America.  For  nearly  two 
centuries,  as  the  preceding  chapters  have  shown,  poetry  and 
expository  prose  had  been  the  only  accepted  forms.  Some 
years  after  the  beginnings  of  a  native  theater  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  first  attempts  were  made  in  a 
native  drama,  but  they  were  faint  and  scant  and  were  looked 
on  with  indifference,  if  not  with  disapproval,  by  most  of  the 
country.  The  chief  tide  of  composition  after  the  war  for 
independence  was  controlled  by  the  twin  moons  of  Pope  and 
Addison.  The  triumph  of  the  English  novel  had  occurred  in 
the  twenty-five  years  after  the  death  of  Pope,  however,  and  its 
influence  could  not  be  long  unfelt.  In  fact  the  six  years  of 
controversy  which  led  to  the  dismissal  of  Jonathan  Edwards 


CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN  103 

from  his  Northampton  church  in  1750  (see  p.  43)  suggest  that 
Richardson  achieved  a  furtive  reading  almost  at  once ;  for 
it  was  Edwards 's  protest  against  certain  books  which  led  to 
11  lascivious  and  obscene  discourse"  among  the  young  people 
that  started  the  whole  trouble  —  and  "Pamela"  was  the 
sensation  of  the  day.  A  later  disapproval  of  Richardson  was 
based  merely  on  his  encouragement  of  frivolity.  Says  Trumbull 
of  Harriet  Simper,  in  "The  Progress  of  Dulness  "  of  1773: 

Thus  Harriet  reads,  and  reading  really 
Believes  herself  a  young  Pamela, 
The  high-wrought  whim,  the  tender  strain 
Elate  her  mind  and  turn  her  brain : 
Before  her  glass,  with  smiling  grace, 
She  views  the  wonders  of  her  face ; 
There  stands  in  admiration  moveless, 
And  hopes  a  Grandison,  or  Lovelace. 

And  by  1804  so  strait  a  conservative  as  President  Dwight  of 
Yale  could  refer  with  complacency  to  novelists  in  general,  and 
to  Sterne  in  particular :  "  Our  progress  resembled  not  a  little 
that  of  my  Uncle  Toby ;  for  we  could  hardly  be  said  to 
advance  at  all." 

The  earliest  American  novels  were  tentative  beginnings  of 
several  sorts.  The  first  was  "The  Power  of  Sympathy,"  by  a 
Lady  of  Boston  (Mrs.  Sarah  Wentworth  Morton),  in  1789. 
It  was  soon  overshadowed  by  Susanna  Rowson's  extremely 
popular  "Charlotte"  in  1790.  Both  were  highly-seasoned 
love  stories.  Of  a  different  kind  was  H.  H.  Brackenridge's 
"Modern  Chivalry"  (1792-1793-1797),  a  rollicking  satire 
on  democracy  carried  on  a  narrative  thread,  with  about  the 
same  right  to  be  termed  a  novel  as  Pierce  Egan's  "  Life  in 
London  "  of  a  generation  later.  Different  again  was  G.  Imlay's 
"The  Emigrants"  (1793),  a  tale  of  the  West  with  a  conven 
tional  London  plot  and  set  of  characters.  And  different  again 
was  Royall  Tyler's  "  The  Algerine  Captive  "  (1797),  a  contem 
porary  story  combining  social  satire,  travel,  and  international 


,104        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

politics,  with  significant  witness  in  the  preface  to  the  growing 
American  vogue  of  the  novel. 

When  Brown  came  to  the  point  of  telling  his  own  stories, 
however,  he  did  not  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  any  American 
predecessors,  but  turjied  to  a  type  for  which  he  was  especially 
fitted  — the  Gothic  romance.  This  was  the  first  extravagant 
contribution  of  fiction  to  the  Romantic  movement :,  —  the  tale  of 
wonder  and  horror,  of  alternating  moonlit  serenities  and  mid 
night  storms,  of  haunted  castles  and  secret  chambers,  of  woods 
and  vales  and  caves  and  precipices,  of  apparent  supernaturalism 
which  was  explained  away  in  a  conscientious  anticlimax,  and 
of  the  same  seraphic  heroine  and  diabolical  villain  who  had 
played  the  leading  roles  for  Richardson.  It  had  been  devel 
oped  by  Horace  Walpole  and  Mrs.  Anne  Radcliffe  and  " Monk" 
Lewis  and  finally  by  William  Godwin,  who  combined  all  this 
machinery  into  a  kind  of  literary  "  tank  "  for  the  conveyance 
of  a  didactic  gun  crew,  for  his  "  Caleb  Williams  "  was  in  fact 
little  more  than  "  Political  Justice  "  in  narrative  camouflage. 
This  was  a  formula  exactly  to  Brown's  taste,  since  he  had  both 
a  strong  ethical  bias  and  a  liking  for  the  mysterious.  His  par 
ticular  undertaking  was  to  translate  it  into  American  terms,  a 
task  that  he  carried  through  in  his  extraordinary  output  of 
1798  to  1801. 

The  first  to  be  published  was  "Wieland,"  a  gradually 
increasing  succession  of  horrors  which  are  brought  about 
through  the  influence  of  a  mysterious  voice.  By  the  oracular 
commands  of  the  unseen  speaker  Wieland's  double  tendency 
to  superstition  and  melancholy  is  deepened  into  a  calm  and 
steady  fanaticism.  At  the  end,  in  obedience  to  what  he  thinks 
is  the  voice  of  God,  he  murders  his  wife  and  children  and, 
confessing,  is  acquitted  on  grounds  of  insanity.  The  horrid 
chapter  of  mishaps  is  explained  by  the  repentant  villain, 
Carwin,  a  ventriloquist,  who  accounts  for  the  stupendous 
wickedness  of  his  achievement  by  nothing  more  convincing 
than  an  irresistible  inclination  to  practice  his  talent.  "  Ormond," 


CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN  105 

of  the  next  year,  is  a  story  of  feminine  virtue  triumphant  over 
obstacles,  which  is  complicated  by  the  employment  of  two 
heroines,  two  victimized  fathers,  and  two  villains.  The  ele 
ment  of  horror  is  supplied  in  the  background  of  the  yellow- 
fever  plague  ;  and  the  mystery,  by  the  apparent  omniscience  of 
the  worse  of  the  malefactors,  who  is  simply  an  ingenious  resorter 
to  false  doors  and  secret  partitions. 

Brown's  most  ambitious  novel  was  "  Arthur  Mervyn,"  which 
appeared  in  two  volumes  in  1/99  and  1800.  It  carries  as  a 
subtitle  "The  Memoirs  of  1793."  These  days,  according  to 
the  preface,  were  suggestive  to  "the  moral  observer,  to  whom 
they  have  furnished  new  displays  of  the  influence  of  human 
passions  and  motives."  He  has  used  "such  incidents  as 
appeared  to  him  most  instructive  and  remarkable,"  believing 
that  "it  is  every  one's  duty  to  profit  by  all  opportunities  of 
inculcating  upon  mankind  the  lessons  of  justice  and  human 
ity."  He  believes  in  tragic  realism  on  account  of  the  "pity" 
which  it  may  inspire.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  plague  seems 
rather  incidental  than  integral  to  the  story.  It  gives  rise  to 
the  introduction  of  Arthur  Mervyn  on  the  scene  and  to  the 
long  piece  of  retrospective  narrative  which  occupies  all  of  the 
first  volume.  This  tells  of  the  experiences  of  Arthur,  three 
days  long,  with  a  consummate  villain,  Welbeck,  just  as  the  sins 
of  the  latter  return  to  him  in  a  dozen  ways.  The  second 
volume  pursues  certain  unfinished  stories  begun  in  the  first, 
the  general  motives  being  to  show  how  completely  the  innocent 
Arthur  Mervyn  is  misunderstood  and  to  present  his  efforts  to 
atone  in  some  degree  for  the  offenses  of  the  real  sinner.  The 
structure  is  by  no  means  as  firm  even  as  this  analysis  would 
seem  to  indicate.  It  is  an  endless  ramification  of  stories  within 
stories,  and. stops  at  last  without  any  sufficient  conclusion. 

"Arthur  Mervyn"  is  evidently  indebted  to  William  Godwin,  of 
whose  "  transcendent  powers  "  in  "  Caleb  Williams  "  Brown  was 
an  ardent  admirer.  But  it  -is  hard  for  the  modern  reader  to 
see  why  either  book  is  strikingly  individual.  Godwin's  feelings 


106        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

about  the  travesties  on  justice  indulged  in  by  the  English  courts 
had  been  anticipated  by  Smollett  in  "  Roderick  Random " 
(chap.  Ixi  ff .) ;  and  Caleb's  hard  times  as  a  fugitive  from  a  false 
charge  are  very  similar  to  Roderick's.  In  the  light  of  history 
it  seems  apparent  that  Brown  was  impressed  by  the  book 
because  it  was  widely  popular  when  he  was  writing,  and  that 
its  popularity  was  due  not  so  much  to  its  merits  as  to  its  polit 
ical  timeliness  at  a  moment  of  revolutionary  excitement.  Of 
Brown's  three  remaining  novels  only  one,  "  Edgar  Huntly," 
is  of  any  importance.  This  is  a  good  detective  story,  fresher 
than  any  of  his  others.  A  somnambulist  who  murders  while 
walking  in  his  sleep  supplies  the  horror  and  creates  the  mystery; 
and  certain  pictures  of  frontier  life  and  Allegheny  Mountain 
scenery,  with  an  Indian  massacre  and  a  panther  fight,  are 
effectively  homemade. 

Brown's  novels  should  naturally  be  estimated  in  comparison 
with  the  works  of  his  contemporaries  rather  than  with  the 
crisp  and  clean-cut  narrative  of  the  present,  but  even  so  they 
are  burdened  with  very  evident  defects.  The  most  flagrant  of 
these  are  the  natural  fruits  of  hasty  writing.  He  is  quoted  as 
saying  to  one  of  his  friends,  "  Sir,  good  pens,  thick  paper, 
and  ink  well  ^diluted,  would  facilitate  my  composition  more 
than  the  prospect  of  the  broadest  expanse  of  clouds,  water  or 
mountains  rising  above  the  clouds."  This  suggests  the  steady 
craftsmanship  of  Anthony  Trollope  with  his  thousand  words 
an  hour.  Yet  he  was  in  no  respect  of  style  or  construction 
the  equal  of  Trollope.  His  novels  are  full  of  loose  ends  and 
inconsequences.  He  is  unblushing  in  his  reliance  on  "  the 
long  arm  of  coincidence."  Even  when  one  untangles  the  plots 
from  the  maze  of  circumstance  in  which  he  involves  them, 
they  are  unconvincing  because  they  are  so  deficient  in  human 
motive.  Moreover,  in  style  they  are  expressed  in  language 
which  is  dizzily  exalted  even  for  the  formal  period  in  which 
they  were  written.  "  I  proceeded  to  the  bath,  and  filling 
the  reservoir  with  water,  speedily  dissipated  the  heat  that 


CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN  107 

incommoded  me."  "  I  had  been  a  stranger  to  what  is  called 
love.  From  subsequent  reflection  I  have  contracted  a  suspi 
cion  that  the  sentiment  with  which  I  regarded  the  lady  was 
not  untinctured  from  this  source  and  that  hence  arose  the 
turbulence  of  my  feelings." 

As  he  never  wrote  —  never  had  time  to  write  —  with  pains 
taking  care,  his  best  passages  are  those  which  he  set  down 
with  passionate  rapidity.  When  the  subject  in  hand  rapt  him 
clean  out  of  himself  so  that  he  became  part  of  the  story,  he 
could  transmit  his  thrill  to  the  reader.  The  horrors  of  va 
plague-stricken  city  such  as  he  hajd  survived  in  New  York 
made  him  forget  to  be  "  literary."  And  the  tense  excitement 
of  an  actor  in  moments  of  suspense  he  could  recreate  in 
himself  and  on  paper.  His  gifts,  therefore,  were  such  as  to 
strengthen  the  climaxes  of  his  stories  and  to  emphasize  the 
flatness  of  the  long  levels  between.  He  had  the  weakness  of 
a  dramatist  who  could  write  nothing  but  "big  scenes,"  but  his 
big  scenes  were  thrillers  of  the  first  magnitude.  He  was  a 
journalist  with  a  ready  pen ;  his  best  work  was  done  in  the 
mood  and  manner  of  a  gifted  reporter.  He  had  neither  the 
constructive  imagination  nor  the  scrupulous  regard  for  details 
of  the  creative  artist. 

Although  in  his  Gothic  tales  Brown  was  a  pioneer  among 
American  novelists,  he  was  like  many  another  American  of 
early  days  in  trailing  along  after  a  declining  English  fashion. 
By  1800  the  great  day  of  the  Gothic  romance  was  over. 
Within  a  few  years  it  was  to  become  a  literary  oddity.  Scott 
was  to  continue  in  what  he  called  the  "  big  bow-wow  "  strain 
but  was  to  make  his  romances  rational  and  human,  and  Jane 
Austen  was  to  describe  the  feelings  and  characters  of  ordinary 
life  with  the  hearty  contempt  for  the  extravagances  of  the 
Radcliffe  school  which  she  expressed  throughout  "  Northanger 
Abbey  "  (chaps,  i,  xx  ff.).  Yet  in  his  own  period  Brown  was 
recognized  in  England  as  well  as  in  America.  The  best  reviews 
took  him  seriously,  Godwin  owed  a  return  influence  from  him, 


108       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Shelley  read  him  with  absorbed  attention,  Scott  borrowed  the 
names  of  two  of  his  characters.  In  these  facts  there  is  evidence 
that  he  was  American  not  only  in  his  acceptance  of  foreign 
influence  but  in  his  conversion  of  what  he  received  into  a 
product  that  was  truly  his  own  and  truly  American.  There  are 
more  or  less  distinct  hints  of  Cooper  and  Poe  and  Hawthorne 
in  the  material  and  the  temper  of  his  writings,  and  there  is 
more  than  a  hint  of  Mrs.  Stowe  and  Lew  Wallace  and  the 
modern  purpose-novelists  in  the  grave  intention  to  inculcate 
"upon  mankind  the  lessons  of  justice  and  morality"  with 
which  he  undertook  his  labors. 


BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

CROSS,  W.  L.    The  Development  of  the  English  Novel,  pp.  98-109. 

1899. 
LOSHE,  L.  D.   The  Early  American  Novel.    1907. 

Individual  Author 

CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN.  The  Novels  of,  with  a  Memoir  of  the 
Author.  Boston,  1827;  Philadelphia,  1857,  1887.  These  appeared 
originally  as  follows  :  Alcuin,  1 798  ;  Wieland,  r  798 ;  Ormond,  1 799 ; 
Arthur  Mervyn,  1799-1800;  Edgar  Huntly,  1799;  Clara  Howard, 
1 80 1 ;  Jane  Talbot,  1801. 

Bibliography 

WEGELIN,  O.  Early  American  Fiction,  1774-1830.  1913.  See  also 
Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  527-529. 

History  and  Criticism 

DUNLAP,  WILLIAM.  Life  of  Charles  Brockden  Brown :  with  selec 
tions.  1815.  2  vols. 

ERSKINE,  JOHN.   Leading  American  Novelists.    1910. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.  Charles  Brockden  Brown,  in  Carlyle's  Laugh  and 
Oth  er  Su  rp  rises .  1 909 . 

MARBLE,  ANNIE  R.  Charles  Brockden  Brown  and  Pioneers  in 
Fiction,  in  Heralds  of  American  Literature.  1907. 

PRESCOTT,  W.  H.  Life  of  Charles  Brockden  Brown,  in  Sparks's 
Library  of  American  Biography,  Vol.  I.  1834.  Also  in  Prescott, 
Biographical  and  Critical  Miscellanies.  1845. 

VAN  DOREN,  C.  Early  American  Realism.  Nation,  Nov.  12,  1914. 
(The  Source  of  Wieland.) 


CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN  109 

VAN  DOREN,  C.  Minor  Tales  of  Brockden  Brown,  1798-1800.  Nation, 
Jan.  14,  1915.  (A  detailed  study,  adding  several  titles  not  before 
ascribed  to  Brown.) 

VAN  DOREN,  C.  In  chap,  vi  of  Cambridge  History  of  American 
Literature,  Vol.  I,  Bk.  II. 


TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  W.  L.  Cross's  "  Development  of  the  English  Novel "  for 
general  characterization  of  the  Gothic  romance,  and  for  contemporary 
reaction  against  this  type  of  fiction  read  Jane  Austen's  "  Northanger 
Abbey,"  chaps,  i,  xx  ff. 

Brown  and  his  work  are  so  remote  from  the  present  that  they 
challenge  inevitable  comparisons  with  other  authors  who  preceded, 
accompanied,  or  followed  him  in  literary  history.  For  example : 

Read  "Arthur  Mervyn,"  Bk.  I,  for  a  comparison  in  handling 
similar  material  with  Defoe's  "  Journal  of  the  Plague  Year "  and 
the  entries  in  Pepys's  Diary  on  the  plague  of  1666. 

Read  "Arthur  Mervyn"  for  a  comparison  of  subject  matter,  plot, 
and  purpose  with  Godwin's  "  Caleb  Williams." 

Read  "  Edgar  Huntly  "  for  a  comparison  as  a  detective  story  with 
any  modern  story,  as,  for  example,  one  of  Conan  Doyle's. 

Read  the  great  suspense  passages  in  "  Wieland  "  for  a  comparison 
with  similar  passages  in  the  tales  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe. 


CHAPTER  IX 
IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL 

'  The  turn  to  Washington  Irving  and  his  chief  associates  in 
New  York  —  James  Fenimore  Cooper  and  William  Cullen 
Bryant  —  is  a  turn  from  colonial  to  national  America  and  from 
the  eighteenth  to  the  nineteenth  century.  This  is  not  to  say 
that  what  they  wrote  was  utterly  and  dramatically  different 
from  what  had  been  written  in  the  colonial  period ;  yet  there 
are  many  points  of  clear  distinction  to  be  marked.  With  them, 
for  one  thing,  New  York  City  first  assumed  the  literary  leader 
ship  of  the  country.  It  was  not  a  permanent  conquest,  but  it 
was  notable  as  marking  the  fact  that  the  new  country  had 
a  dominating  city.  As  a  rule  the  intellectual  and  artistic  life 
of  a  country  centers  about  its  capital.  Athens,  Rome,  Paris, 
London,  are  places  through  which  the  voices  of  Greece,  Italy, 
France,  and  England  have  uttered  their  messages.  These  cities 
have  held  their  preeminence,  moreover,  because,  in  addition  to 
being  the  seats  of  government,  they  have  been  the  great  com 
mercial  centers  and  usually  the  great  ports  of  their  countries. 
In  the  United  States,  then,  the  final  adoption  of  Washington 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  as  the  national  capital  was  a  com 
promise  step ;  this  could  not  result  in  bringing  to  it  the  addi 
tional  distinction  which  natural  conditions  gave  to  New  York. 
Washington  has  never  been  more  than  the  city  where  the 
national  business  of  government  is  carried  on ;  locating  the 
center  for  art  and  literature  has  been  beyond  the  control  of 
legislative  action.  For  the  first  third  of  the  nineteenth  century 
New  York  was  the  favored  city.  Here  Irving  was  born,  and 
here  Cooper  and  Bryant  came  as  young  men,  rather  than  to 
the  Philadelphia  of  Franklin  and  his  contemporaries. 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     in 

x 

For  these  men  of  New  York,  America  was  an  accomplished 
jact  —  a  nation  slowly  and  awkwardly  taking  its  place  among 
the  nations  of  the  world.  To  be  sure,  the  place  that  Americans 
wanted  to  take,  following  the  advice  of  George  Washington, 
was  one  of  withdrawal  from  the  turmoil  of  the  Old  World 
and  of  safety  from  "  entangling  alliances  "  which  could  ever 
again  bring  it  into  the  warfare  from  which  it  was  so  glad 
to  be  escaping.  The  Atlantic  was  immensely  broader  in  those 
days  than  now,  for  its  real  breadth  is  to  be  measured  not  in 
miles  but  in  the  number  of  days  that  it  takes  to  cross  it. 
When  Irving  went  abroad  for  the  first  time  in  1803  he  was 
fifty-nine  days  in  passage.  To-day  one  can  go  round  the  world 
in  considerably  less  time,  and  the  average  fast  Atlantic  steam 
ship  passage  is  one  tenth  of  that,  while  the  aeroplane  flight 
has  divided  the  time  by  ten  again.  So  the  early  Americans 
rejoiced  in  their  "  magnificent  isolation  "  and  wanted  to  grow 
up  as  dignified,  respected,  but  very  distant  neighbors  of  the 
Old  World. 

It  was  an  unhappy  fact,  however,  that  America  —  or  the 
United  States  —  was  not  notable  for  its  dignity  in  the  early 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  for  the  finest  dignity,  like 
charity,  "  is  not  puffed  up,  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly," 
whereas  the  new  nation  was  very  self-conscious,  quickly  irritated 
at  foreign  criticism,  and  uncomfortably  aware  of  its  own  crudities 
in  manner  and  defects  in  character.  As  far  as  foreign  criticism 
was  concerned,  there  were  ample  reasons  for  annoyance  in 
America.  Even  as  early  as  1775  John  Trumbull 1  had  felt  that 
it  was  hopeless  to  expect  fair  treatment  at  the  hands  of  English 
reviewers,  warning  his  friends  Dwight  and  Barlow, 

Such  men  to  charm  could  Homer's  muse  avail, 
Who  read  to  cavil,  and  who  write  to  rail ; 
When  ardent  genius  pours  the  bold  sublime, 
Carp  at  the  style,  or  nibble  at  the  rhyme ; 

1  Lines  addressed  to  Messrs.  Dwight  and  Barlow. 


112        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

and  the  mother  country,  after  the  Revolution  and  the  War  of 
1812,  was  less  inclined  than  before  to  deal  in  compliment. 
Man  after  man  came  over, 

Like  Fearon,  Ashe,  and  others  we  could  mention ; 
Who  paid  us  friendly  visits  to  abuse 
Our  country,  and  find  food  for  the  reviews.1 

Moreover,  all  the  time  that  England  was  criticizing  her  runaway 
child,  she  was  maddeningly  complacent  as  to  her  own  virtues. 
Americans  could  not  strike  back  with  any  effect,  because  they 
could  not  make  the  English  feel  their  blows.  So  they  fretted 
and  fumed  for  half  a  century,  their  discomfort  finding  its  clearest 
expression  in  Lowell's  lines2: 

She  is  some  punkins,  thet  I  wun't  deny 

(For  ain't  she  some  related  to  you  'n'  I  ?) 

But  there 's  a  few  small  intrists  here  below 

Outside  the  counter  o'  John  Bull  an'  Co, 

An'  though  they  can't  conceit  how  't  should  be  so, 

I  guess  the  Lord  druv  down  Creation's  spiles 

'thout  no  gret  helpin'  from  the  British  Isles, 

An'  could  contrive  to  keep  things  pooty  stiff 

Ef  they  withdrawed  from  business  in  a  miff ; 

I  ha'n't  no  patience  with  sech  swellin'  fellers  ez 

Think  God  can't  forge  'thout  them  to  blow  the  bellerses. 

A  further  reason  for  uneasiness  in  the  face  of  foreign  com 
ment  was  that  honest  Americans  were  aware  that  their  country 
suffered  from  the  crudities  of  youth.  It  is  unpleasant  enough 
for  "  Seventeen  "  to  be  nagged  by  an  unsympathetic  maiden 
aunt,  but  it  is  intolerable  if  she  has  some  ground  for  her 
naggings.  In  small  matters  as  well  as  great  "  conscience  doth 
make  cowards  of  us  all."  In  a  period  of  such  rapid  expan 
sion  as  prevailed  in  the  young  manhood  of  Irving,  Cooper, 
and  Bryant  it  was  unavoidable  that  most  of  the  population  were 

1  Fitzgreene  Halleck,  "  Fanny,"  stanza  Iviii. 
<J  Mason  and  Slidell,  11.  155-165. 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     113 

drawn  into  business  undertakings  that  were  usually  eager  and 
hurried  and  that  were  often  slipshod  or  even  shady.  The 
American  colleges  and  their  graduates  were  not  as  distinguished 
as  they  had  been  in  the  earlier  colonial  days,  and  the  new  in 
fluence  of  European  culture  from  the  Old  World  universities 
was  yet  to  come.  In  the  cities,  and  notably  in  New  York, 
the  vulgar  possessors  of  mushroom  fortunes  multiplied  rapidly, 
bringing  up  vapid  daughters  like  Halleck's  "  Fanny,"  l  who  in 
all  the  modern  languages  was 

Exceedingly  well-versed  ;  and  had  devoted 
To  their  attainment,  far  more  time  than  has, 

By  the  best  teachers,  lately  been  allotted ; 
For  she  had  taken  lessons,  twice  a  week, 
For  a  full  month  in  each  ;  and  she  could  speak 

French  and  Italian,  equally  as  well 

As  Chinese,  Portuguese,  or  German ;  and, 

What  is  still  more  surprising,  she  could  spell 
Most  of  our  longest  English  words  off-hand ; 

Was  quite  familiar  in  Low  Dutch  and  Spanish, 

And  thought  of  studying  modern  Greek  and  Danish ; 

and  whose  father,  a  man  of  newly  affected  silence  that  spoke 
11  unutterable  things,"  was  established  in  a  mortgaged  house 
filled  with  servants  and  "  whatever  is  necessary  for  a  '  genteel 
liver '  "  and  buttressed  with  a  coach  and  half  a  dozen  unpaid- 
for  horses.  At  the  same  time  the  countryside  was  developing 
a  native  but  not  altogether  admirable  Yankee  type.  At  their 
best,  Halleck  2  wrote, 

The  people  of  today 
Appear  good,  honest,  quiet  men  enough 
And  hospitable  too  —  for  ready  pay  ; 
With  manners  like  their  roads,  a  little  rough, 
And  hands  whose  grasp  is  warm  and  welcoming,  though  tough. 

1  "  Fanny,"  stanzas  cxxi,  cxxii.  2  "  Wyoming,"  stanza  iv. 


114        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

And  at  their  worst  Whittier1  looked  back  a  half  century,  to 
1818,  and  recalled  them  as 

Shrill,  querulous  women,  sour  and  sullen  men, 
Untidy,  loveless,  old  before  their  time, 
With  scarce  a  human  interest  save  their  own 
Monotonous  round  of  small  economies, 
Or  the  poor  scandal  of  the  neighborhood ; 

Church-goers,  fearful  of  the  unseen  Powers, 
But  grumbling  over  pulpit  tax  and  pew-rent, 
Saving,  as  shrewd  economists,  their  souls 
And  winter  pork,  with  the  least  possible  outlay 
Of  salt  and  sanctity ;  in  daily  life 
Showing  as  little  actual  comprehension 
Of  Christian  charity  and  love  and  duty 
As  if  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  had  been 
Outdated  like  a  last  year's  almanac. 

A  natural  consequence  of  such  criticism  from  without,  and 
such  raw  and  defective  culture  within  the  country,  was  that 
American  writers  of  any  moment  bided  their  time  as  patiently 
as  they  could,  recognizing  that  for  the  moment  America  must 
be  a  nation  of  workers  who  were 

rearing  the  pedestal,  broad-based  and  grand, 
Whereon  the  fair  shapes  of  the  Artist  shall  stand, 
And  creating,  through  labors  undaunted  and  long, 
The  theme  for  all  Sculpture  and  Painting  and  Song.2 

Finally,  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  first  three  eminent  writers 
in  nineteenth-century  America  were  themselves  not  university 
products.  Bryant  withdrew  from  Williams  College  at  the  end 
of  the  first  year,  and  Cooper  from  Yale  toward  the  end  of  the 
second.  The  real  education  of  these  two  and  of  Irving,  who 
did  not  even  enter  college,  was  in  the  world  of  action  rather 
than  in  the  world  of  books,  and  their  associates  were  for  the 
most  part  men  of  affairs. 

1  "  Among  the  Hills  "  (Prelude,  71  ff.)-  2  Lowell,  "  Fable  for  Critics." 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     115 

WASHINGTON   IRVING 

Many  of  the  facts  about  the  boyhood  and  youth  of  Washing 
ton  Irving  (1783-1859)  are  typical  of  his  place  and  his  period 
as  well  as  true  of  himself.  The  first  is  that  he  was  born  (in 
New  York  City)  of  British-American  parents,  his  father  a 
Scotch  Presbyterian  from  the  Orkney  Islands  and  his  mother 
an  Englishwoman.  His  father's  rigid  religious Lyiews  dominated 
in  the  upbringing  of  himself  and  his  six  brothers  and  sisters. 
Two  nearly  inevitable  results  followed  :  one,  that  as  a  boy  he 
grew  to  believe  that  almost  everything  that  was  enjoyable  was 
wicked,  and  the  other,  that  as  he  came  toward  manhood  he 
was  particularly  fond  of  the  pleasures  of  life.  A  boy  of  his 
capacities  in  Boston  at  this  time  would  have  been  more  than 
likely  to  go  to  Harvard  College,  which  was  a  dominating  influ 
ence  in  eastern  Massachusetts,  but  King's  College  (Columbia) 
occupied  no  such  position  in  New  York.  Irving's  higher  edu 
cation  began  in  a  law  office,  and  then,  when  his  health  seemed 
to  be  failing,  was  continued  by  travel  abroad.  The  long  journey, 
or  series  of  journeys,  that  he  took  from  1804  to  1806  were  of 
the  greatest  importance.  They  were  important  to  Irving  be 
cause  he  was  peculiarly  fitted  to  get  the  greatest  good  from 
such  informal  education.  He  was  an  attractive  young  fellow,  so 
that  it  was  easy  for  him  to  make  and  to  hold  friends ;  and  he  was 
blessed  with  his  father's  moral  balance,  so  that  he  did  not  fall 
into  bad  habits.  He  was  so  far  inclined  to  laziness  that  it  is 
doubtful  if  he  would  have  achieved  much  if  he  had  gone  to 
college,  but  he  was  wide-awake  and  receptive,  so  that  he  absorbed 
information  wherever  he  went.  Furthermore,  he  had  a  mind  as 
well  as  a  memory,  and  he  came  back  to  America  stocked  not 
merely  with  a  great  lot  of  miscellaneous  facts  but  with  a  real 
knowledge  of  human  nature  and  of  human  life. 

From  the  day  of  his  return  to  New  York  in  1806  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  in  1859,  Washington  Irving  had  an  international 
point  oL  view^and  developed  steadily  into  an  international 


Il6        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

character.  His  first  piece  of  writing  was  that  of  a  very  young 
man,  but  a  young  man  of  promise.  Like  the  other  Americans  of 
his  day  he  had  read  a  good  deal  of  English  literature  written  in 
the  eighteenth  century ;  and  among  the  essayists  of  that  cen 
tury  who  had  attracted  his  attention  one  was  Oliver  Goldsmith. 
New  York  supplied  him  with  his  subjects  and  Goldsmith  with 
his  method  of  attack,  for  he  wrote,  in  company  with  one  of  his 
brothers  and  a  mutual  friend,  ajseries  of  amusing  criticisms  on 
j  -the  ways  of  his  townsmeji,  modeling  his  Salmagundi  Papers 
afterGoldsmith's  Citizen  of '.  the^World.  This  was  at  once 
independent  and  imitative.  The  youthful  authors  blithely 
announced  in  their  introductory  number  that  they  proposed  to 
"instruct  the  young,  reform  the  old,  correct  the  town,  and 
castigate  the  age."  In  the  twenty-two  papers  that  came  out  at 
irregular  intervals  between  January,  1807,  and  January,  1808, 
they  criticized  everything  that  struck  their  attention,  and  they 
had  their  eyes  wide  open.  The  American  love  of  display,  the 
inclination  to  indulge  in  fruitless  discussion  which  made  the 
country  a  "  logocracy  "  rather  than  a  democracy,  the  lack  of 
both  judgment  and  order  which  marked  their  political  elections, 
and  their  social  and  literary  fashions  make  just  a  beginning  of 
the  list  of  subjects  held  up  to  genial  ridicule.  Yet,  though  the 
criticism,  was  fair  and  to  the  point,  it  was  an  old-fashioned  kind 
of  comment,  the  kind  that  England  had  been  feeding  on  for 
the  better  part  of  a  century,  ever  since  Addison  and  Steele  had 
made  it  popular  in  the  Tatler  and  the  Spectator.  Moreover,  it 
was  done  in  an  old-fashioned  way,  for  in  making  Mustapha 
Rub-a-Dub  Keli  Khan,  the  Tripolitan,  the  foreign  commentator 
on  American  life  as  he  saw  it  with  a  stranger's  eyes,  they  were 
using  a  device  that  was  old  even  before  it  was  employed  by  the 
Englishman  from  whom  they  borrowed  it.  The  Salmagundis 
are  interesting,  however,  as  early  representatives  of  a  longish 
succession  of  satires  on  the  life  of  New  York,  all  pleasant  and 
rather  pleasantly  superficial.  Three  years  later  Irving,  this  time 
alone,  followed  up  this  initial  success  with  his  "Knickerbocker's 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     117 

Historyof  New  York,"  not  as  serious  a  piece  of  work  as  its 
title  atTirst  suggests,  for  it  was  a  burlesque  of  a  heavy  and 
pretentious  history  on  the  same  subject  which  had  appeared 
just  before.  Like  the  Salmagundis  it  was  vivacious  and  im 
pertinent,  the  very  clever  work  of  a  very  young  man. 

Now  for  ten  years  Washington  Irving  produced  nothing  as 
a  writer.  He  was  engaged  in  business  with  his  brothers,  and 
proved  himself  the  most  level-headed  member  of  a  pretty  un 
businesslike  combination.  In  1815,  in  connection  with  one  of 
their  many  ambitious  and  unsuccessful  schemes,  he  went  abroad, 
probably  without  the  least  suspicion  that  he  would  be  absent 
from  his  own  country  for  seventeen  years  and  that  he  would 
return  to  it  as  a  celebrated  writer  widely  read  in  two  continents. 
The  first  step  toward  his  wider  reputation  came  in  1819  with 
the  publication  in  London  of  "The  Sketch  Book."  the  best 
known  of  all  his  works.  This  was  followed  in  1822  by  "Brace- 
bridge  Hall"  and  in  1824  by  "Tales  of  a  Travellerr"  both  similar 
in  tone  and  contents  to  "  The  Sketch  Book."  With  a  reputa 
tion  as  a  graceful  writer  of  sketches  and  stories  now  thoroughly 
established,  he  turned  to  a  more  substantial  and  ambitious  form 
of  work  in  the  composition  of  "The  History  of  the  Life  and 
Voyages  of  Christopher  Columbus,"  living  and  writing  in 
Madrid  for  the  two  years  before  its  publication  in  1828  ;  and 
this  book  he  followed  quickly,  as  in  the  case  of  "  The  Sketch 
Book,"  with  two  other  productions  of  the  same  kind  —  "The 
Conquest  of  Granada"  in  1829  and  "The  Voyages  and  Dis 
coveries  of  the  Companions  of  Columbus  "  in  1831.  For  three 
years  before  his  return  to  America,  Irving  served  as  Secretary 
of  Legation  to  the  court  of  St.  James,  London,  and  then  came 
back  to  enjoy  at  home  a  popularity  which  had  been  almost 
wholly  earned  abroad.  Out  of  his  career  thus  far  four  main  facts 
deserve  attention^  First,  that  his  literary  work  began  .with  two 
pieces  of  social  satire,  written  in  a  boyish,  jovial  manner  which 
he  largely  abandoned  in  later  years  ;  second,  that  his  fame  was 
established  on  works  of  "The  Sketch  Book"  type,  made  up  of 


118        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


short  units,  gracefully  written,  and  full  of  quiet  humor  and 
tender  sentiment  (now  and  again  he  continued  in  this  sort  of 
composition  up  to  the  end  of  his  life)  ;  third,  that  in  his  maturer 
years  he  resorted  to  the  writing  of  formal  history,  and  that  he 
followed  the  first  three  studies,  done  in  Spain,  with  "  Oliver 
Goldsmith  "  in  1849,  "Mahomet  and  his  Successors"  in  1850, 
and  "The  Life  of  Washington,"  completed  in  1859,  tne  vear 
of  his  death.  To  these  literary  facts  should  be  added  a  fourth 
which  is  both  literary  and  political  and  of  no  small  significance 
in  history  —  the  fact  of  Irving's  appointment  to  a  post  in  the 
foreign  diplomatic  service.  This  was  to  be  followed  in  his  own 
life  by  his  four  years  as  Minister  to  Spain  in  1842-1846,  under 
President  Harrison,  and  in  the  next  fifty  years  by  a  distinguished 
list  of  other  appointments  to  the  consular  and  diplomatic  staffs. 
No  single  group  has  done  more  to  bring  honor  to  the  United 
States  in  the  courts  of  Europe  during  the  nineteenth  century 
than  writers  like  Irving,  Hawthorne,  Motley,  Howells,  Bayard 
Taylor,  Lowell,  Hay,  and  their  successors  down  to  Thomas 
Nelson  Page  and  Brand  Whitlock. 

To  return  to  "The  Sketch  Book."  By  1818,  three  years 
after  Irving  had  gone  abroad  for  the  second  time,  the  business 
in  which  he  had  been  engaged  with  his  brothers  had  utterly 
failed,  and  he  was  forced  to  regard  writing  not  merely  as  an 
attractive  way  of  diverting  himself  but  as  a  possible  source  of 
income.  The  new  articles  which  he  then  wrote,  together  with 
many  which  had  been  accumulating  in  the  leisure  of  his  years 
in  England,  were  soon  ready  for  publication,  but  they  found 
no  English  publisher  ready  to  risk  putting  them  out.  Even  the 
powerful  influence  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Irving's  cordial  friend, 
could  not  prevail  at  first  with  John  Murray,  "the  prince  of  pub 
lishers."  In  1819  Sidney,  Smith's  contemptuous  and  famous 
query,  "Who  reads  an  American  book  ?  "  was  fairly  representa 
tive  of  the  English-reading  public.  Murray  was  interested  in 
Irving's  manuscript,  but  did  not  see  any  prospect  of  selling 
enough  books  to  justify  the  risk  of  publication.  Irving  had  wanted 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     119 

the  indorsement  of  Murray's  imprint  to  offset  the  severity  of  the 
kind  of  English  criticism  deplored  years  earlier  by  John  Trum- 
bull  (see  p.  1 1 1).  As  soon,  however,  as  the  sketches  were  printed 
in  New  York  in  a  set  of  seven  modest  installments,  the  atten 
tion  of  English  readers  was  attracted  to  them,  and  Irving  heard 
rumors  that  a  "pirated"  English  edition  was  to  appear.  There 
was  no  international  copyright  in  those  days,  and  no  adequate 
one  until  as  late  as  1899  ;  so  that  a  book  printed  on  one  side 
of  the  Atlantic  was  fair  game  for  anyone  who  chose  to  steal  it 
on  the  other.  If  an  author  wanted  his  works  to  appear  correctly 
and  to  get  his  full  money  return  for  them,  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  go  through  all  the  details  of  publishing  independently 
in  both  countries.  After  a  great  deal  of  difficulty,  therefore, 
Irving  contrived  to  get  out  an  English  edition  through  an  in 
efficient  publisher,  but  the  success  of  it  was  so  marked  that 
Murray  soon  saw  the  light  and  from  then  on  was  eager  to  get 
the  English  rights  for  everything  that  Irving  wrote  and  to  pay 
him  in  advance  five,  ten,  and,  in  one  case,  as  much  as  fifteen 
thousand  dollars. 

With  the  appearance  of  "The  Sketch  Book"  England 
arrived  at  a  new  answer  for  Sidney  Smith's  question.  Irving 
was  sought  as  a  celebrity  by  the  many,  in  addition  to  being 
loved  as  a  charming  gentleman  by  his  older  friends.  Few  trib 
utes  are  more  telling  than  that  contained  in  a  letter  written  many 
years  later  by  Charles  Dickens  in  which  he  refers  to  the  delight 
he  took  in  Irving's  pages  when  he  was  "  a  small  and  not  over 
particularly  well  taken  care  of  boy."  Even  the  austere  Edin 
burgh  Review  indorsed  the  American  as  a  writer  of  "great 
purity  and  beauty  of  diction."  From  the  most  feared  critic  in 
the  English-speaking  world  to  the  neglected  boy  whose  father 
was  in  debtors'  prison  Irving  received  enough  applause  quite  to 
turn  the  head  of  a  less  modest  man. 

"The  Sketch  Book  "  includes  over  thirty  papers  of  four  or 
five  different  kinds.  About  fifteen  are  definite  observations  on 
English  life  and  habits  as  seea  in  country  towns  and  on  country 


120        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

9*^- 
estates.     Of  the  remainder  six  are  literary  essays  of  various 

kinds;  four  are  in  the  nature  of  personal  traveling  reminis 
cences;  three  are  the  famous  short  stories — "  Rip  Van  Winkle," 
"Sleepy  Hollow,"  and  the  "The  Spectre  Bridegroom"  ;  and 
five  so  far  defy  classification  as  to  fall  under  the  convenient 
category  of  "  miscellaneous." 

As  a  document  in  literary  history  the  sixth  paper  deserves 
far  more  notice  than  is  usually  conceded  to  it,  for  as  a  rule 
it  is  totally  neglected.  This  is  entitled  "  British  Writers  joa 
America."  The  tone  of  English  literary  criticism  has  already 
been  referred  to.  Irving  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  all 
English  writings  on  America  and  the  Americans  were  equally 
ill-natured.  He  pointed  out  that  ordinarily  English  readers  de 
manded  strictest  accuracy  from  author-travelers;  that  if  a  man 
who  wrote  a  book  on  the  regions  of  the  Upper  Nile  or  the 
unknown  islands  of  the  Yellow  Sea  was  caught  in  error  at  a 
few  minor  points,  he  was  held  up  to  scorn  as  careless  and  un 
reliable,  and  another  English  traveler  who  could  convict  him 
of  mistakes  or  misstatements  could  completely  discredit  him. 
But  in  marked  contrast  to  this,  no  such  scrupulousness  was 
demanded  of  visitors  to  the  United  States.  Books  on  the  new 
nation  in  the  Western  World  were  written  and  read  to  satisfy 
unfriendly  prejudice  rather  than  to  supply  exact  information 
and  honest  opinion.  Against  a  continuation  of  such  a  practice 
Irving  gave  warning,  not  merely  because  it  was  uncharitable 
but  because  in  time  it  would  estrange  the  two  peoples  and 
lose  for  England  a  friend  with  whom  she  could  not  afford  to 
be  at  loggerheads. 

Is  all  this  to  be  at  end  ?  Is  this  golden  band  of  kindred  sympathies, 
so  rare  between  nations,  to  be  broken  forever?  Perhaps  it  may  be 
for  the  best.  It  may  dispel  an  illusion  which  might  have  kept  us  in 
mental  vassalage ;  which  might  have  interfered  occasionally  with  our 
*true  interests,  and  prevented  the  growth  of  proper  national  pride. 
But  it  is  hard  to  give  up  the  kindred  tie!  and  there  are  feelings  dearer 
than  interest— closer  to  the  heart  than  pride — that  will  make  us  cast 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     1 21 

back  a  look  of  regret  as  we  wander  farther  and  farther  from  the 
paternal  roof,  and  lament  the  waywardness  of  the  parent  that  would 
repel  the  affections  of  the  child. 

There  were  probably  many  other  Americans  capable  of  mak 
ing  the  warning  prophecy  so  notably  fulfilled  nearly  a  hundred 
years  later,  though  few,  perhaps,  who  would  have  put  it  in  such 
temperate  language ;  but  Irving  went  further  in  following  with 
a  warning  to  his  fellow-countrymen  : 

Shortsighted  and  injudicious,  however,  as  the  conduct  of  England 
may  be  in  this  system  of  aspersion,  recrimination  on  our  part  would 
be  equally  ill-judged.  .  .  .  Let  us  guard  particularly  against  such  a 
temper,  for  it  would  double  the  evil  instead  of  redressing  the  wrong. 
Nothing  is  so  easy  and  inviting  as  the  retort  of  abuse  and  sarcasm, 
but  it  is  a  paltry  and  unprofitable  contest.  .  .  .  The  members  of  a 
republic,  above  all  other  men,  should  be  candid  and  dispassionate.  They 
are,  individually,  portions  of  the  sovereign  mind  and  sovereign  will, 
and  should  be  enabled  to  come  to  all  questions  of  national  concern 
with  calm  and  unbiased  judgments.  .  .  .  Let  it  be  the  pride  of  our 
writers,  therefore,  discarding  all  feelings  of  irritation,  and  disdaining 
to  retaliate  the  illiberality  of  British  authors,  to  speak  of  the  English 
nation  without  prejudice  and  with  determined  candor. 

If  there  is  any  justification  for  calling  an  American  essay 
"The  American  Declaration  of  Literary  Independence"  the  title 
should  be  conferred  on  this  neglected  number  in  "The  Sketch 
Book."  It  was  long  before  either  English  or  American  writers 
were  wise  enough  to  follow  Irving's  counsels,  but  he  himself 
was  always  as  tactful  as  he  was  honest. 

"The  Sketch  Book"  as  a  whole,  then,  can  best  be  under 
stood  as  an_American's  comments  on  English  life  and  custom, 
made  at  a  time  when  "the  retort  of  abuse  and  sarcasm  "  would 
have  been  quite  natural.  In  the  opening  paper,  as  well  as  in 
the  sixth,  there  is  a  gentle  reminder  that  the  literary  east  wind 
had  felt  rather  sharp  and  nipping  in  New  York.  Irving  is 
describing  himself  after  the  fashion  of  the  eighteenth-century 


122        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

essayists  at  the  introduction  of  a  series,  and  at  the  end  indulges 
in  this  little  nudge  of  irony : 

A  great  man  of  Europe,  thought  I,  must  ...  be  as  superior  to  a 
great  man  of  America,  as  a  peak  of  the  Alps  to  a  highland  of  the 
Hudson ;  and  in  this  idea  I  was  confirmed  by  observing  the  compara 
tive  importance  and  swelling  magnitude  of  many  English  travelers 
among  us,  who,  I  was  assured,  were  very  little  people  in  their  own 
country.  I  will  visit  this  land  of  wonders,  thought  I,  and  see  the 
gigantic  race  from  which  I  am  degenerated. 

His  summarized  impressions  of  the  typical  Englishman  are 
/*  contained  in  the  thirtieth  paper,  on  "John  Bull."  This  keen 
analysis  will  bear  the  closest  reading  and  study,  and  the  more 
one  knows  of  English  history  the  more  interesting  it  becomes. 
In  this  respect  it  is  like  "  Gulliver's  Travels,"  for  it  is  full  of 
double  meanings.  To  the  inattentive  or  the  immature  it  is  simply 
a  picture  of  a  bluff,  hearty,  quick-tempered,  over-conservative 
average  English  country  gentleman,  but  to  the  intelligent  and 
attentive  reader  this  gentleman  turns  out  to  be  the  embodiment 
of  the  English  government  and  the  British  Empire.  The  char 
acter  of  Parliament,  the  relation  between  Church  and  State,  the 
condition  of  the  national  treasury,  the  attitude  of  the  rulers 
toward  reform  legislation  and  toward  the  colonies,  dependen 
cies,  and  dominions  are  all  treated  with  kindly  humor  by  the 
visiting  critic.  The  picture  is  by  no  means  a  flattering  one, 
but  it  was  Irving's  happy  gift  to  be  able  to  indulge  in  really 
biting  satire  and  yet  to  do  so  in  such  a  courteous  and  friendly 
way  that  his  words  carried  little  sting.  Part  of  the  concluding 
paragraph  to  this  essay  will  illustrate  his  method  of  combining 
justice  with  mercy : 

Though  there  may  be  something  rather  whimsical  in  all  this,  yet 
I  confess  I  cannot  look  upon  John's  situation  without  strong  feelings 
of  interest.  With  all  his  odd  humors  and  obstinate  prejudices,  he  is 
a  sterling-hearted  old  blade.  He  may  not  be  so  wonderfully  fine 
a  fellow  as  he  thinks  himself,  but  he  is  at  least  twice  as  good  as  his 
neighbors  represent  him.  His  virtues  are  all  his  own ;  all  plain, 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     123 

home-bred,  and  unaffected.  His  very  faults  smack  of  the  raciness 
of  his  good  qualities.  His  extravagance  savors  of  his  generosity ;  his 
quarrelsomeness  of  his  courage ;  his  credulity  of  his  open  faith ;  his 
vanity  of  his  pride  ;  and  his  bluntness  of  his  sincerity.  They  are 
all  the  redundancies  of  a  rich  and  liberal  character. 

In  this  spirit  Irving  wrote  the  other  sketches  of  John  Bull 
as  he  appears  in  "  Rural  Life/'  "  The__Country  Church," 
"The  Inn  Kitchen,"  and  the  group  of  five  Christmas  pictures. 

To  judge  from  these  eight  scenes  of  English  country  life, 
Irving,  a  visitor  from  a  new  and  unsettled  land,  was  chiefly 
fascinated  by  the  evidences  of  old  age  and  tradition  on  every 
side.  For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  he  delighted  in  the 
customs  of  the  country  squires  who  had  not  been  swept  out 
of  their  ancient  order  by  the  tide  of  modern  trade.  Even  the 
English  scenery  was  in  his  mind  "  associated  with  ideas  of 
order,  of  quiet,  of  sober,  well-established  principles,  of  hoary 
usage  and  reverend  custom.  Everything  seems  to  be  the 
growth  of  ages  of  regular  and  peaceful  existence."  As  Irving 
observed  it,  it  was  still  the  "  Merrie  England  "  of  song  and 
story,  an  England,  therefore,  beautifully  typified  in  the  cele 
bration  of  the  Christmas  festivities.  There  is  a  touch  of  auto 
biography  in  his  comment  on  the  good  cheer  that  prevailed 
at  Bracebridge  Hall,  —  a  home  that  Squire  Bracebridge  tried  to 
make  his  children  feel  was  the  happiest  place  in  the  world,  — 
it  was  so  utterly  different  from  the  suppressed  family  circle 
over  which  his  Presbyterian  father  had  ruled.  As  a  guest  he 
enjoyed  all  the  picturesque  and  quaint  merrymaking  at  the 
Hall,  and  re-conjured  up  pictures  like  those  which  Addison 
had  previously  drawn  at  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley's.  Yet  all  the 
while  he  was  aware  that  the  old  English  gentleman  was  a 
costly  luxury  for  England  to  maintain,  that  Squire  Bracebridge 
was  after  all  nothing  but  John  Bull,  and  that  John  Bull  was 
inclining  to  lag  behind  his  age.  As  a  student  of  Goldsmith, 
Irving  had  read  "The  Deserted  Village";  the  thought  of  it 
seems  to  have  come  back  to  him  while  writing  "  Rural  Life  "  ; 


124       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

for  a  moment  the  usurpation  of  the  land  by  the  wealthy  dis 
quieted  him,  but  then  he  consoled  himself  with  the  comforting 
thought  that  abuses  of  this  sort  were  "  but  casual  outbreaks 
in  the  general  system."  Irving  was  writing  as  an  observer 
who  found  much  to  admire  in  the  external  beauty  of  the 
old  order  of  things,  but  at  the  bottom  of  his  American  mind 
it  is  quite  apparent  that  there  was  a  silent  approval  of  gradual 
reform  in  "  the  good  old  ways."  Squire  Bracebridge  was 
delightful  to  Irving,  but  on  the  whole  he  was  a  delightful 
old  fogy. 

Irving's  papers  on  London  —  "The  Boar's  Head  Tavern^" 
"Westminster  Abbey,"  and  "Little  Britain"  —  are  full j)f  a 
similar  reverence  for  old  age  in  the,  life  of  .the-.community.  In 
the  same  mood  in  which  he  laughed  at  the  pranks  of  the 
Christmas  Lord  of  Misrule,  he  made  his  way  to  Eastcheap, 
"  that  ancient  region  of  wit  and  wassail,  where  the  very  names 
of  the  streets  relished  of  good  cheer,  as  Pudding  Lane  bears 
testimony  even  at  the  present  day  "  ;  and  he  took  much  more 
evident  satisfaction  in  his  recollection  of  Shakespearean  revelries 
than  in  his  hours  in  Westminster,  the  "  mingled  picture  of 
glory  and  decay."  Once  again  in  "  Little  Britain  "  Irving  was 
in  more  congenial  surroundings,  for  he  preferred  to  smile  at 
the  echoes  of  dead  laughter  than  to  shudder  at  the  reminders 
of  vanished  greatness. 

Little  Britain  may  truly  be  called  the  heart's  core  of  the  city ;  the 
strong-hold  of  true  John  Bullism.  It  is  a  fragment  of  London  as  it 
was  in  its  better  days,  with  its  antiquated  folks  and  fashions.  Here 
flourish  in  great  preservation  many  of  the  holiday  games  and  customs 
of  yore.  The  inhabitants  most  religiously  eat  pancakes  on  Shrove 
Tuesday,  hot-cross-buns  on  Good  Friday,  and  roast  goose  at  Michael 
mas  ;  they  send  love-letters  on  Valentine's  Day,  burn  the  Pope  on  the 
fifth  of  November,  and  kiss  all  the  girls  under  the  mistletoe  at 
Christmas.  Roast  beef  and  plum-pudding  are  also  held  in  superstitious 
veneration,  and  port  and  sherry  maintain  their  grounds  as  the  only 
true  English  wines. 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     125 

In  more  than  casual  respect  for  such  traditions  Irving  goes 
on  to  introduce  the  rival  oracles  of  Little  Britain,  to  escort  us 
to  Wagstaff's  and  the  Roaring  Lads,  to  act  as  personal  con 
ductor  to  Bartholomew  Fairs  and  a  Lord  Mayor's  Day,  and 
finally  to  lament  the  baleful  influence  of  the  socially  ambitious 
Misses  Lamb  and  the  decline  of  the  choice  old  games  All- 
Fours,  Pope  Joan,  and  Tom-come-tickle-me.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  youthful  Dickens  loved  these  papers,  for  the  same 
England  appealed  to  both  Irving  and  Dickens  throughout 
their  lives.  It  was  a  rough,  boisterous,  jolly  England,  with  a 
good  deal  of  vulgarity  which  they  were  ready  to  forgive  and 
a  good  many  vices  which  they  chose  to  overlook  in  favor  of 
its  chief  virtues  —  a  blunt  honesty,  a  hearty  laugh,  and  a 
full  stomach. 

There  is  another  side  of  old  England  that  was  dear  to  those 
two  —  that  John  Bull  could  "easily  be  moved  to  a  sudden 
tear"  (see  p.  109,  first  topic).  In  the  old  days  of  even  a  hun 
dred  years  ago  men  of  Saxon  stock  were  much  more  ready 
to  express  themselves  than  they  are  to-day,  for  the  accepted 
manners  of  the  present  are  comparatively  reserved  and  impas 
sive.  If  a  man  was  amused  he  laughed  loud  and  long ;  if  he 
was  angered  he  came  up  with  "a  word  and  a  blow"  ;  and  if 
his  deeper  feelings  were  touched  he  was  not  ashamed  of  a 
tear.  In  fact  he  seemed  almost  to  feel  a  certain  pride  in  his 
"sensibility,"  as  if  his  power  to  weep  proved  that  his  nature 
was  not  destitute  of  finer  feeling  and  made  up  for  his  quick 
ness  to  wrath  and  his  fondness  for  a  broad  joke.  In  perhaps 
unconscious  recognition  of  this  habit  of  mind  the  literature  of 
a  century  ago  contained  a  great  many  frank  appeals  to  the 
reader's  feeling  for  pathos,  appeals  which  the  modern  reader 
would  be  likely  to  condemn  as  unworthily  sentimental. 

In  the  history  of  literature  a  distinction  is  made  between 
"-SentimentJ'  —  the  ability  to  respond  to  the  finer  emotions, 
such  as  love,  sorrow,  reverence,  patriotism,  worship  —  and 
"  sentimentalism  "  —  the  unrestricted  expression  of  these 


126       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

emotions  by  eloquence,  tears,  and  feminine  sighs,  blushes,  and 
swoonings.  For  this  sentimentalism,  which  was  a  literary 
fashion  of  his  period,  Irving  found  an  outlet  in  sketches  like 
"The  Wife,"  "The  Broken  Heart,"  "The  Widow  and  her 
Son,"  and  "The  Pride  of  the  Village."  The  first  is  on  "the 
fortitude  with  which  women  sustain  the  most  overwhelming 
reverses  of  fortune,"  a  sketch  in  which  the  husband  is  the 
sentimentalist.  He  has  lost  his  money  and  is  afraid  to  shock 
his  wife  with  the  revelation,  but  his  "  altered  looks  and  stifled 
sighs"  half  betray  him.  In  "an  agony  of  tears"  he  tells  a 
friend,  and  by  him  is  persuaded  to  be  honest  with  her.  Her 
latent  heroism  comes  out  in  the  face  of  his  announcement;  and 
on  her  welcome  to  him  at  his  first  homecoming  to  the  modest 
cottage  he  is  rendered  speechless,  and  tears  once  more  gush 
into  his  eyes.  The  second  is  a  direct  attempt  to  shame  "  those 
who  have  outlived  the  susceptibility  of  early  feeling,  or  have 
been  brought  up  ...  to  laugh  at  all  love  stories."  The  third, 
on  "  The  Widow  and  her  Son,"  is  more  convincing  to  the 
reader  of  to-day,  for  it  is  on  the  tragic  picture  of  a  fond  parent's 
bereavement.  The  fourth  is  the  best  example  of  all.  The 
pride  of  the  village  is  introduced  as  "  blushing  and  smiling  in 
all  the  beautiful  confusion  of  girlish  diffidence  and  delight." 
She  falls  in  love  with  a  gallant  young  soldier,  who  begs  her  to 
accompany  him  when  he  is  ordered  to  the  front.  Shocked  at 
his  perfidy  she  clasps  her  hands  in  agony,  then  succumbs  to 
"  faintings  and  hysterics,"  and  then  goes  into  a  decline.  After 
some  time  her  lover  returns  to  her  and  rushes  into  the  house. 
"She  was  too  faint  to  rise  —  she  attempted  to  extend  her 
trembling  hand  —  her  lips  moved  as  if  she  spoke,  but  no  word 
was  articulated  —  she  looked  down  upon  him  with  a  smile  of 
unutterable  tenderness  —  and  closed  her  eyes  forever !  "  If 
these  sketches  seem  unreal  and  even  amusing  to  the  student, 
it  is  partly  because  they  are  actually  overdrawn  and  partly 
because  the  present  generation  has  repressed,  if  it  has  not 
"  outlived,  the  susceptibility  of  early  feeling." 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     127 

Two  other  types  of  work  remain  to  be  mentioned.  The  first 
is  the  literary  essay,  in  which  the  chief  interest  arises  from 
Irving's  sympathetic  appreciation  of  his  English  masters.  From 
these  essays  —  there  are  five  of  distinct  importance  —  it  appears 
that  he  was  especially  well-read  in  the  writings  of  a  much 
earlier  period  and  that  he  took  pleasure  in  dwelling  on  pas 
sages  which  were  characterized,  as  his  own  work  came  to  be, 
by  "  great  purity  and  beauty  of  diction."  The  other  group  is 
the  most  famous  in  "The  Sketch  Book,"  the _thrfiCL stories 
of  which  "  Rip  Van  Winkle "  is  the  best  known.  This  is 
extremely  interesting  for  several  reasons.  The  first  is  that 
it  is  a  good  story,  which  will  long  be  read  for  its  own  sake, 
and  as  such  it  needs  no  comment,  for  it  is  familiar  to  every 
one.  But  it  is  also  a  ^milestone  in  literary  history.  One 
reason  for  this  is  that  it  carries  into  practice  a  principle  that 
American  authors  had  long  been  talking  and  writing  about 
—  the  principle  of  using  native  material.  It  is  located  in  the 
Catskill  Mountains  and  in  the  years  before  and  after  the 
Revolutionary  War.  It  introduces  real  colonial  and  early 
American  people.  Although  it  is  a  far-fetched  romance  in  its 
theme,  it  makes  use  of  homely,  realistic  details.  Jonathan 
Doolittle's  hotel  was  just  the  sort  of  shabby  boarding  house 
that  marred  the  countryside  during  the  slipshod  years  after 
the  Revolution  and  that  survived  into  Irving's  youth.  "A 
large  rickety  wooden  building  .  .  .  with  great  gaping  windows, 
some  of  them  broken  and  mended  with  old  hats  and  petti 
coats."  The  sign  was  strangely  changed  from  pre-Revolution 
days.  "  The  red  coat  was  changed  for  one  of  blue  and  buff, 
a  sword  was  held  in  the  hand  instead  of  a  sceptre,  the  head 
was  decorated  with  a  cocked  hat,  and  underneath  was  painted 
in  large  characters,  GENERAL  WASHINGTON."  The  fact  that 
the  folk  story  about  Hendrick  Hudson  and  his  crew  had  some 
basis  in  a  German  superstition  does  not  affect  the  fact  that 
Irving  completely  localized  it  and  gave  it  its  enduring  fame 
as  an  American  tale. 


128        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Another  reason  why  this  story  stands  out  in  literary  history 
is  that  it  is  one  of  the  first  really  successful  examples  of  the 
modern  short  story,  and  that  in  this  sense  it  represents 
America's  chief  contribution  to  the  types  of  literature.  We 
are  likely  to  take  for  granted  that  all  the  popular  forms  of 
literature  have  existed  since  the  beginning  of  time.  Yet  prose 
stories  of  any  kind  were  comparatively  modern  a  hundred 
years  ago,  and  most  of  them  were  long  narratives  in  two  or 
three  and  sometimes  as  many  as  six  or  seven  volumes.  What 
short  stories  existed  were  merely  condensed  novels,  not  limited 
to  any  brief  period  and  not  developed  with  any  definite  detail. 
"  Rip  Van  Winkle  "  was  strikingly  different  from  its  vague  and 
shapeless  forerunners.  After  the  introduction  it  was  limited 
to  two  short  passages  of  time  —  the  few  hours  just  before  and 
the  few  hours  just  after  Rip  went  to  sleep  on  the  mountain. 
And  the  whole  story  was  composed  to  lead  up  to  the  main 
point,  —  the  chief  point  of  this  history  and  of  all  history,  — 
the  relentless  way  in  which  life  moves  on,  regardless  of  the 
individual  who  falls  asleep  and  is  left  behind.  All  the  details 
in  the  story  help  to  develop  this  idea.  Rip,  the  ne'er-do-well, 
was  the  sort  of  man  to  serve  as  the  central  character,  for  he 
was  more  anxious  to  escape  life  than  to  take  his  part  in  it. 
His  eager,  querulous,  sharp-tongued  wife  reminded  him  of  the 
burden  of  living  only  to  make  him  avoid  it  the  more ;  her  loss 
was  the  only  one  which  he  did  not  regret  on  his  return.  His 
dog  and  gun,  which  he  missed  first  and  missed  most  keenly, 
were  the  pride  of  the  old-fashioned  trapper  out  of  place  in  the 
up-to-date  American  village.  The  years  bridging  the  Revolution 
were  the  most  natural  and  effective  ones  to  mark  the  kind  of 
change  that  is  always  taking  place ;  and  Rip's  experience  in 
finding  that  loyalty  to  a  discarded  monarchy  was  treason  to 
a  new  republic  was  simply  an  emphatic  illustration  of  what 
will  usually  happen  to  a  man  who  lives  in  the  past  instead 
of  in  the  present.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  assume  that 
Irving  chose  the  old  folk-legend  in  order  to  expound  this 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     129 

theme,  or  even  that  he  was  conscious  of  the  completeness  with 
which  he  was  doing  it.  The  fact  remains  that  it  was  remark 
able  in  its  day  for  its  glear  compactness,  and  that  it  meets 
one  of  the  tests  of  enduring  fiction  in  telling  a  good  story 
well  and  of  building  that  story  out  of  elements  that  convey 
some  truth  about  life. 

"  The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow  "  is  comparable  to  "  Rip 
Van  Winkle"  only  in  its  use  of  native  American  character, 
scenes,  and  tradition.  It  is  hardly  a  short  story  at  all,  but 
rather  a  prolonged  sketch  full  of  "local  atmosphere"  and 
partly  strung  on  a  narrative  thread.  Ichabod  Crane  and  his 
townsmen,  except  for  Brom  Bones  and  his  gang,  are  like 
Rip  in  one  respect,  for  they  are  representative  citizens  in  a 
town  where  "  population,  manners  and  customs  remain  fixed ; 
while  the  great  torrent  of  migration  and  improvement,  which 
is  making  such  incessant  changes  in  other  parts  of  this 
restless  country,  sweeps  by  them  unobserved."  Ichabod  was 
an  interesting  survival,  too,  because  his  combination  of  learn 
ing  and  superstition  had  come  to  him  from  a  distinguished 
source,  for  he  "  was  a  perfect  master  of  Cotton  Mather's 
history  of  New  England  witchcraft,  in  which,  by  the  way,  he 
most  firmly  and  potently  believed.  He  was,  in  fact,  an  odd 
mixture  of  small  shrewdness  and  simple  credulity.  His  appe 
tite  for  the  marvellous,  and  his  powers  of  digesting  it,  were 
equally  extraordinary,  and  both  had  been  increased  by  his 
residence  in  this  spellbound  region.  No  tale  was  too  gross 
or  monstrous  for  his  capacious  swallow.  It  was  often  his 
delight,  after  his  school  was  dismissed  in  the  afternoon,  to 
stretch  himself  on  the  rich  bed  of  clover,  bordering  the  little 
brook  that  whimpered  by  his  schoolhouse,  and  there  con  over 
old  Mather's  direful  tales,  until  the  gathering  dusk  of  the 
evening  made  the  printed  page  a  mere  mist  before  his  eyes." 
Ichabod,  moreover,  is  a  comic  type  in  American  life  in  the 
early  nineteenth  century,  who  seems  to  have  been  equally 
disliked  by  all  the  New  Yorkers  —  the  Puritan  descendant 


130       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

strayed  from  home.  Cooper's  David  Gamut  is  one  of  the  same 
crop.  The  story  of  the  Headless  Horseman,  like  that  of  the 
Spectre  Bridegroom,  is,  of  course,  only  a  make-believe  ghost 
story,  neither  important  nor  well  told.  The  real  interest  in 
the  sketch  lies  in  its  picture  of  simple  country  life.  The  whole 
scene  at  Baltus  Van  Tassel's  house  is  as  clear  and  vivid  as  the 
contrasting  scenes  at  Bracebridge  Hall  or  as  Whittier's  picture 
of  another  family  scene  in  "  Snow-Bound."  The  third  well- 
known  story  in  "The  Sketch  Book,"  "The  Spectre  Bride 
groom,"  is,  like  "The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow,"  more  of  a 
sketch  than  a  story,  and  does  not  pretend  to  be  laid  on 
American  soil. 

It  is  a  common  experience  of  schoolboys  and  schoolgirls  to 
eel  on  reading  Irving  for  the  first  time  that  his  way  of  writing 
is  stJjBL-jandjunnatural.  Compared  with  the  fashion  of  to-day 
the  wording  and  sentence  structure  of  "  The  Sketch  Book  " 
deserve  such  a  verdict.  But  to  render  it  against  the  writing  of 
a  hundred  years  ago,  without  comparing  the  book  in  question 
with  others  of  its  own  generation,  is  to  ignore  the  very  point 
of  "Rip  Van  Winkle"  —  that  fashions  change.  Assuming, 
then,  that  styles  do  change,  and  that  Irving  was  no  more  formal 
than  other  authors  of  his  day,  it  is  still  worth  while  to  see  what 
some  of  the  main  points  of  coritrast  are  between  1819  and 
1919.  Here  are  two  passages  that  will  serve  as  a  basis  for 
comparison.  The  first  is  from  "Philip  of  Pokanoket,"  one 
of  the  two  "Sketch  Book"  essays  written  in  America. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  those  early  writers,  who  treated  of  the 
discovery  and  settlement  of  America,  have  not  given  us  more  particular 
and  candid  accounts  of  the  remarkable  characters  that  flourished  in 
savage  life.  The  scanty  anecdotes  which  have  reached  us  are  full  of 
peculiarity  and  interest ;  they  furnish  us  with  nearer  glimpses  of 
human  nature,  and  show  what  man  is  in  a  comparatively  primitive 
state,  and  what  he  owes  to  civilization.  There  is  something  of  the 
charm  of  discovery  in  lighting  upon  these  wild  and  unexplored 
tracts  of  human  nature ;  in  witnessing,  as  it  were,  the  native  growth 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     131 

of  moral  sentiment,  and  perceiving  those  generous  and  romantic 
qualities  which  have  been  artificially  cultivated  by  society,  vegetating 
in  spontaneous  hardihood  and  rude  magnificence. 

The  second  is  from  G.  S.  Lee's  "  Crowds,"  Bk.  I,  chap,  viii : 

The  future  in  America  cannot  be  pictured.  The  only  place  it  can 
be  seen  is  in  people's  faces.  Go  out  into  the  street,  in  New  York,  in 
Chicago,  in  San  Francisco,  in  Seattle ;  look  eagerly  as  you  go  into  the 
faces  of  the  men  who  pass,  and  you  feel  hundreds  of  years  —  the  next 
hundred  years  —  like  a  breath  swept  past.  America,  with  all  its  forty- 
story  buildings,  its  little  play  Niagaras,  its  great  dumb  Rockies,  is  the  un 
seen  country.  It  can  only  as  yet  be  seen  in  people's  eyes.  Some  days, 
flowing  sublime  and  silent  through  our  noisy  streets,  and  through 
the  vast  panorama  of  our  towers,  I  have  heard  the  footfalls  of  the 
unborn,  like  sunshine  around  me. 

These  passages  have  almost  exactly  the  same  number  of  words, 
—  the  former  one  hundred  and  fifteen  and  the  latter  one  hun 
dred  and  seventeen,  —  but  a  glance  at  the  printed  page  shows 
that  Irving's  words  take  up  one  fifth  more  space  than  Lee's  do. 
The  reason  is  that  Irving  uses  twenty-six  words  of  more  than 
two  syllables,  and  Lee,  aside  from  place-names,  only  two. 
Although  both  passages  are  written  in  analysis  of  American 
conditions,  Irving,  who  is  discussing  the  past,  employs  abstract 
or  general  words  —  to  use  the  nouns  alone,  words  like  discovery, 
anecdotes,  peculiarity,  civilization,  sentiment,  qualities,  mag 
nificence  ;  Lee,  who  is  looking  to  the  future,  uses  definite  and 
picturesque  terms  like  faces,  street,  buildings,  eyes,  panorama, 
towers,  footfalls,  —  uses  these  words  even  though  he  admits 
the  idea  he  is  dealing  with  cannot  be  pictured.  Again,  Irving 
cast  his  one  hundred  and  fifteen  words  into  three  sentences 
averaging  nearly  forty  words  in  length,  and  Lee  put  his  into 
six,  averaging  a  fraction  less  than  twenty.  Finally,  all  Irving's 
sentences  are  "  loose,"  or  so  built  that  the  reader  may  rest  or  even 
stop  with  a  completed  sense  before  he  comes  to  the  end  ;  but  four 
out  of  six  in  Lee's  passage  are  "periodic,"  or  so  constructed 
that  you  must  read  to  the  end  or  be  left  hanging  in  mid-air. 


132        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

It  would,  of  course,  be  forcing  the  issue  absurdly  far  to  in 
sist  or  even  suggest  that  so  broad  a  comparison  would  apply 
without  exception  to  the  writers  of  a  hundred  years  ago  and 
of  to-day,  but  in  general  there  is  a  fair  deduction  to  be  drawn. 
Irving  belonged  to  a  group  who  were  still  addressing  an 
eighteenth-century  audience,  an  audience  made  up  of  "  gentle 
readers  "  —  men  who  enjoyed  the  rhythmical  flow  of  a  courtly 
and  elegant  style,  who  felt  that  there  was  a  virtue  in  purity  and 
beauty  of  diction  apart  from  any  idea  the  diction  was  supposed 
to  express  ;  but  the  modern  reader  esteems  literature  as  a  means 
rather  than  an  end.  It  must  catch  and  hold  his  attention ;  it 
must  be  clear  and  forcible  first,  and  elegant  as  a  secondary 
matter  ;  and  its  words  and  sentences  must  be  chosen  and  put 
together  as  a  challenge  to  a  reader  in  the  midst  of  a  restless, 
driving,  twentieth-century  world.  With  these  facts  in  mind 
one  may  say,  if  he  will,  that  Washington  Irving  was  stiff  and 
formal,  but  he  should  say  this  as  marking  a  difference  and  not 
a  necessary  inferiority  in  Irving. 

Irving  lived  until  1859,  but  the  richly  fruitful  part  of  his 
life  was  from  1819,  the  year  in  which  the  serial  publication  of 
"The  Sketch  Book"  began,  to  1832,  the  year  of  his  return 
from  abroad.  In  this  period  he  published  ten  books  and  all 
the  best  known  of  his  works  but  the  lives  of  Goldsmith  and 
Washington.  When  he  came  back  after  seventeen  years'  absence 
he  was  known  and  admired  in  England,  France,  and  Germany, 
and  the  most  popular  of  American  authors.  Irving  was  one  of 
the  first  to  profit,  American  fashion,  by  a  European  reputation 
reflected  and  redoubled  at  home.  At  the  dinner  of  welcome 
tendered  him  soon  after  his  arrival  he  showed  how  absence 
had  made  the  heart  grow  fonder  : 

I  come  from  gloomier  climes  to  one  of  brilliant  sunshine  and 
inspiring  purity.  I  come  from  countries  lowering  with  doubt  and 
danger,  where  the  rich  man  trembles  and  the  poor  man  frowns  — 
where  all  repine  at  the  present  and  dread  the  future.  I  come  from 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     133 

these  to  a  country  where  all  is  life  and  animation ;  where  I  hear  on 
every  side  the  sound  of  exultation ;  where  everyone  speaks  of  the 
past  with  triumph,  the  present  with  delight,  the  future  with  growing 
and  confident  anticipation. 

And  here,  he  went  on  to  say,  he  proposed  to  remain  as  long 
as  he  lived.  These  last  twenty-seven  years  were  filled  with 
honors.  He  had  already  received  the  gold  medal  from  the 
Royal  Society  of  Literature  and  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws 
from  Oxford  University.  Now  he  was  to  have  the  refusal  of 
a  whole  succession  of  public  offices  and  the  leadership  of  a 
whole  "  school "  of  writers.  Diedrich  Knickerbocker  had  be 
come  a  household  word,  which  was  applied  to  the  Knickerbocker 
school  of  Irving's  followers  and  used  in  the  christening  of  the 
Knickerbocker  Magazine  (1833-1865).  Irving  was  in  truth  a 
connecting  link  between  the  century  of  his  birth  and  the  century 
of  his  achievements.  He  carried  over  the  spirit  and  the  man 
ners  of  Addison  and  Goldsmith  into  the  New  World  and  into 
the  age  of  steam.  With  him  it  was  a  natural  mode^of^thought 
and  way  of  expression,  but  with  his  imitators  it  was  affected 
and  superficial  —  so  much  so  that  the  Knickerbocker  school 
declined  and  the  Knickerbocker  Magazine  went  out  of  existence 
shortly  after  Irving's  death. 

The  leading  figure  in  the  Knickerbocker  school  was  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck,  who  was  born  in  Connecticut  in  1790  but 
spent  his  active  life  in  New  York.  When  he  came  up  to  the 
city,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  fell  in  with  the  literary  people 
of  the  town  and  shared  their  eager  interest  in  the  current  Eng 
lish  output.  According  to  his  biographer  they  were  absorbed 
in  "The  Lady  of  the  Lake"  and  "  Marmion,"  in  Campbell's 
"  Pleasures  of  Hope,"  Rogers's  "  Pleasures  of  Memory,"  Moore's 
"Melodies,"  Miss  Porter's  "Scottish  Chiefs"  and  "  Thaddeus 
of  Warsaw,"  and,  a  little  later,  in  "  Waverley,"  "  Guy  Manner- 
ing,"  and  "  The  Antiquary  "  —  works  that  in  Halleck's  opinion 


134       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

produced  "a  wide-spread  enthusiasm  throughout  Great  Britain 
and  this  country  which  has  probably  never  been  equalled  in  the 
history  of  literature." 

Halleck  (as  already  cited  on  page  113)  was  uncomfortably 
conscious  of  the  prosaic  commercial  drive  of  American  life 
and  disposed  to  lament  the  wane  of  romance.  His  regret  for 
the  passage  of  "  the  good  old  days  "  he  frequently  expressed 
in  the  poems  he  wrote  between  the  ages  of  twenty-five  and 
thirty—  "Alnwick  Castle,"  "Red-Jacket,"  "A  Sketch,"  "A 
Poet's  Daughter"  ;  and  in  "Wyoming"  he  sometimes  grieved 
for  the  old  and  sometimes  protested  at  the  new.  When  in  1823 
he  wrote  "  Marco  Bozzaris,"  he  lived  up  to  his  own  thesis, 
taking  an  heroic  episode  of  immediate  interest  —  August  20, 
1823 — and  putting  it  into  a  ballad  for  freedom  that  has 
probably  been  declaimed  as  often  as  "  The  Charge  of  the 
Light  Brigade  "  or  "  How  They  Brought  the  Good  News  from 
Ghent  to  Aix." 

In  the  meanwhile  he  had  become  the  intimate  of  the  talented 
young  Joseph  Rodman  Drake.  Their  friendship  had  sprung 
from  a  common  love  of  romantic  poetry,  but  the  joint  work 
which  they  undertook  was  a  series  of  contemporary  satires. 
These  were  printed  in  The  National  Advocate  and  the  New 
York  Evening  Post  between  March  and  July,  1819.  Thirty-five 
of  them  appeared  over  the  signature  of  "  Croaker,"  from  which 
they  became  known  as  the  "  Croaker  Papers."  They  were 
both  pertinent  and  impertinent,  aided  by  the  mystery  of  their 
authorship  and  accumulating  in  interest  through  the  uncer 
tainty  as  to  when  the  next  would  appear  and  whom  it  would 
assail.  The  more  general  in  theme  had  the  same  underlying 
good  sense  which  belonged  to  the  earlier  Salmagundis  (see 
p.  1 1 6),  and  in  their  simple  and  often  brutal  directness  they 
must  have  offered  then,  as  they  do  now,  a  relief  from  the 
fashionable  echoes  of  secondary  English  poets.  Later  in  1819 
Halleck  resumed  the  same  strain  in  "Fanny"  —  the  account 
in  about  a  thousand  lines  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  Fanny  and  her 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     135 

father  in  New  York  finance  and  society.1  Among  many  efforts 
of  the  sort  Stedman's  "Diamond  Wedding"  and  Butler's 
"  Nothing  to  Wear  "  have  been  the  only  later  approach,  and 
all  have  been  true  not  merely  of  New  York  but  of  the  same 
stage  in  most  quick-growing  American  cities. 

In  1820  Drake  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  leaving 
as  his  literary  bequest  the  inspiration  for  Halleck's  memorial 
verses, 

Green  be  the  turf  above  thee 
Friend  of  my  better  days ! 

» 

as  well  as  his  share  in  the  "  Croaker  Papers,"  and  "  The 
Culprit  Fay,"  and  certain  shorter  poems  which  give  promise  of 
things  much  greater  than  this  overrated  attempt.  The  "  Fay," 
according  to  a  letter  by  Halleck,  was  a  three-day  production  of 
1816,  written  to  demonstrate  that  the  Hudson  River  scenery 
could  be  turned  to  literary  account.  Whether  or  no  the  anec 
dote  is  true,  Drake  wrote  to  this  point  in  his  "  To  a  Friend," 
and  in  "  Niagara  "  and  "  Bronx."  Yet  the  fact  is  worth  remark 
that  nothing  in  "  The  Culprit  Fay  "  is  any  more  explicitly  true 
of  the  Hudson  region  than  of  the  Rhine  country  or  the  Nor 
wegian  fiords.  The  poem  reads  like  a  pure  fantasy,  hurriedly 
and  carelessly  written  by  an  inexperienced  hand.  Nevertheless, 
when  published  it  was  extravagantly  praised.  Halleck  said,  "  It 
is  certainly  the  best  thing  of  the  kind  in  the  English  language, 
and  is  more  strikingly  original  than  I  had  supposed  it  was 
possible  for  a  modern  poem  to  be."2 

1  An  interesting  tribute  is  paid  this  poem  by  Ezra  Pound  in  a  footnote  to 
"  L'Homme  Moyen  Sensuel,"  in  "  Pavannes  and  Divisions,"  p.  33.    "  I  would 
give   these   rhymes   now  with  dedication  '  To  the  Anonymous  Compatriot 
Who  Produced  the  Poem  "Fanny"  Somewhere  About  1820,'  if  this  form  of 
centennial  homage  be  permitted  me.    It  was  no  small  thing  to  have  written, 
in  America,  at  that  distant  date,  a  poem  of  over  forty  pages  which  one  can 
still  read  without  labor." 

2  It  was  reserved  for  Poe  to  write  a  genuinely  critical  estimate  of  it.    See 
The  Southern   Literary  Messenger,  Vol.  II,  pp.  326  ff.    Reprinted  in  "The 
Literati,"  p.  374. 


136        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

In  Halleck's  exclamatory  surprise  at  originality  in  any  modern 
poem  is  to  be  found  the  vital  difference  between  the  two  friends. 
Halleck  seemed  to  believe  that  the  final  canons  for  art  had  been 
fixed,  and  could  hardly  conceive  of  originality  in  a  nineteenth- 
century  poet ;  but  Drake  tried  new  things  and  rebelled  at  the 
old.  His  best  efforts,  however  qualified  their  success,  were 
strainings  at  the  leash  of  eighteenth-century  convention. 

Go  !  kneel  a  worshipper  at  nature's  shrine  ! 

For  you  her  fields  are  green,  and  fair  her  skies ! 

For  you  her  rivers  flow,  her  hills  arise ! 

And  will  you  scorn  them  all,  to  pour  forth  tame 

And  heartless  lays  of  feigned  or  fancied  sighs  ? 

And  will  you  cloud  the  muse  ?  nor  blush  for  shame 

To  cast  away  renown,  and  hide  your  head  from  fame  ? 

As  "  The  Culprit  Fay  "  shows,  Drake's  idea  was  to  escape  from 
the  drawing-room  into  the  open,  but  when  in  the  open  to  weave, 
as  it  were,  Gobelin  tapestries  for  drawing-room  use.  He  saw 
no  gleam  of  essential  poetry  in  democracy  or  the  crowded  town, 
yet  in  his  vague  craving  for  something  better  than  Georgian 
iterations  he  showed  that  the  revival  of  individualism  was  at 
work  in  him.  The  story  is  told  that  his  intimacy  with  Halleck 
began  in  his  accord  with  the  latter's  wish  that  he  could  "  lounge 
upon  the  rainbow,  and  read  '  Tom  Campbell.'  "  In  his  aspirations 
he  seems  to  have  been  nearer  to  the  spirit  of  Keats  and  Shelley. 

As  fate  would  have  it,  the  more  independent  of  the  two  was 
taken  off  before  his  prime,  and  Halleck,  the  survivor,  settled 
down  into  complacent  Knickerbockerism.  With  his  nicety  of 
taste,  his  keen  eye,  his  fund  of  humor,  and  his  frankness,  he 
was  an  established  literary  and  social  favorite.  He  was  the  kind 
of  handsome  and  courtly  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  as  Irving 
was  also,  who  became  a  friend  and  associate  of  the  leading 
financier  of  the  day.  There  was  nothing  restless  or  disconcerting 
about  him.  He  was  a  critic  of  manners,  but  not  of  the  social 
order.  He  probably  knew  little  of  Emerson,  and  he  certainly 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     137 

disapproved  of  Whitman.  In  1848,  when  less  than  sixty  years 
of  age,  he  went  back  to  his  native  town  in  Connecticut  and 
lived  there  till  after  the  Civil  War,  totally  unaffected  as  a  man 
of  letters,  except  as  the  conflict  seems  to  have  silenced  him. 
But  he  was  not  alone,  for  when  he  sank  into  eclipse  all  the 
Knickerbockers  disappeared  with  him.  Their  vogue  was  over. 


BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Authors 

WASHINGTON  IRVING.  First  posthumous  complete  edition.  New  York, 
1860-1861.  21  vols.  These  appeared  originally  as  follows:  Salma 
gundi,  1807-1808;  History  of  New  York,  1809;  The  Sketch  Book, 
1819;  Bracebridge  Hall,  1822;  Jonathan  Oldstyle,  1824;  Tales  of 
a  Traveller,  1824;  Columbus,  1828  ;*  Conquest  of  Granada,  «i  8 29; 
Companions  of  Columbus,  1831 ;  The  Alhambra,  1832;  The  Crayon 
Miscellany,  1^835;  Astoria,  1836;  Captain  Bonneville,  1837;  Gold 
smith,  1849;  Mahomet,  1839-1850;  Wolfert's<&tost,  185*5;  Wash 
ington,  1855-1859;  Uncollected  Miscellanies,  1866. 

Bibliography 

Compiled  by  Shirley  V.  Long  for  Cambridge  History  of  American 
Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  510-517. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  of  Washington  Irving  is  by  P.  M.  Irving,  The  Life 

and  Letters  of  Washington  Irving.    1862-1864.    1864,  1879,  J883. 

4  vols. 

BOYNTON,  H.  W.   Washington  Irving.    Boston,  1901. 
BRYANT,  W.  C.    A  Discourse  on  the  Life,  Character,  and  Genius  of 

Washington  Irving.    1860. 

CURTIS,  G.  W.    Irving's  Knickerbocker.    Critic,  Vol.  III.    1883. 
CURTIS,  G.  W.    Washington   Irving,  in  Literary  and  Social  Essays. 

1894. 
HAZLITT,  WILLIAM.    Elia,  and  Geoffrey  Crayon,  in  The  Spirit  of  the 

Age.    1825. 
HOLMES,  OLIVER  WENDELL.    Irving's  Power  of  Idealization.   Critic^ 

Vol.  III.    1883. 
HOLMES,  OLIVER  WENDELL.    Tribute  to  Irving.    Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 

Proceedings.    1858-1860. 

HOWELLS,  WILLIAM  DEAN.    My  Literary  Passions.   1895. 
LONGFELLOW,  H.  W.   Tribute  to  Irving.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings. 

1858-1860. 

LOWELL,  J.  R.    A  Fable  for  Critics.   1848. 
PAYNE,  W.  M.    Leading  American  Essayists.   1910. 


138        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

POE,  E.  A.    living's  Astoria.    Southern  Literary  Messenger,  Vol.  III. 

1837- 
PUTNAM,  G.  H.    Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

Bk.  II,  chap.  iv. 
THACKERAY,  W.  M.    Nil  Nisi  Bonum.    Cornhill  Magazine,  Vol.  I. 

1860.    Harper's,  Vol.  XX.    1860. 

WARNER,  C.  D.   American  Men  of  Letters  Series.   1881. 
WARNER,  C.  D.    Irving's  Humor.    Critic,  Vol.  III.    1883. 
WARNER,  C.  D.  Washington  Irving.   Atlantic,  Vol.  XLV.   1880. 
WARNER,  C.  D.   The  Work  of  Washington  Irving.   1893. 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  The  Poetical  Works  of.  New  York,  1847, 
1850,  1852,  1853,  1854,  1855,  1858,  1859.  Poetical  writings  with 
extracts  from  those  of  Joseph  Rodman  Drake.  J.  G.  Wilson,  editor. 
1869,  1885.  (These  editions  include  the  Croaker  Papers.)  These 
appeared  originally  as  follows:  Fanny,  1819;  Alnwick  Castle  with 
Other  Poems,  1827;  Fanny  and  Other  Poems,  1839;  Young 
America,  a  Poem,  1865;  Lines  to  the  Recorder,  1866. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck. 
J.  G.  Wilson.  1869. 

BRYANT,  W.  C.  Some  Notices  on  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck.  1869. 

DENNETT,  J.  R.   The  Knickerbocker  School.   Nation,  Dec.  6,  1867. 

DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  in  Putnam's  Magazine.   1868. 

LEONARD,  W.  E.  Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
Bk.  II,  in  chap.  v. 

POE,  E.  A.    Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  in  Complete  Works,  Vol.  VIII.    1902. 

TUCKERMAN,  H.  T.  Reminiscences  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  in 
Lippincotfs  Magazine.  1868. 

WILSON,  J.  G.    Bryant  and  his  Friends.    1886. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.    American  Poetry,  pp.  147-168,  626-629. 
DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  II,  pp.  207-212. 

GRISWOLD,  R.  W.    Poets  and  Poetry  of  America.    1842. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  V, 

pp.  216-225. 

JOSEPH  RODMAN  DRAKE.    Poems  by  Croaker,  Croaker  and  Co.,  and 
Croaker,  Jr.    First  printed  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post.    1819. 
Reprinted  as  a  pamphlet,  1819.    The  Culprit  Fay  and  Other  Poems. 
1835.    The  American  Flag.    1861. 
Biography  and  Criticism 

CORNING,  A.  L.   Joseph  Rodman  Drake.    Bookman.   1915. 

HOWE,  M.  A.  DEW.  American  Bookmen.   1898. 


IRVING  AND  THE  KNICKERBOCKER  SCHOOL     139 

POE,  E.  A.   Fancy  and  Imagination.   Complete  Works,  Vol.  VII.   1902. 
WELLS,  J.  L.  Joseph  Rodman  Drake  Park.   1904. 
WILSON,  J.  G.    Bryant  and  his  Friends.   1886. 

WILSON,  J.  G.   Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  in  Harper's  Magazine.   June, 
1874. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.   American  Poetry,  pp.  136-153,  624-626. 
DUYCKINCK,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  I,  pp.  201-207. 

GRISWOLD,  R.  W.    Poets  and  Poetry  of  America.    1842. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  V, 

PP-  363-379- 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  "  Salmagundi  Papers  "  and  "  The  Citizen  of  the  World  " 
for  evident  influences.  Close  attention  will  reveal  obligations  not 
merely  in  the  use  of  a  foreign  observer,  a  slight  narrative  thread, 
and  the  kind  of  topics  treated,  but  also  in  actual  detail  passages. 

Read  passages  covering  the  education  of  Goldsmith  in  Irving's  Life, 
in  Macaulay's  essay,  and  in  Thackeray's  "  English  Humourists,"  and 
compare  the  degrees  of  sympathy  with  which  Goldsmith  is  presented. 

In  connection  with  the  problems  of  international  copyright,  see 
passages  indicated  in  the  table  of  contents  or  index  of  the  following 
volumes :  "  Matthew  Carey,  Publisher,"  by  E.  L.  Bradsher ;  "  Letters 
of  Richard  Watson  Gilder"  (edited  by  Rosamond  Gilder,  1916); 
"These  Many  Years,"  by  Brander  Matthews,  1917;  "Memories 
of  a  Publisher  "  and  "  The  Question  of  Copyright,"  by  George  Haven 
Putnam,  1915  ;  "Mark  Twain,  a  Biography,"  by  A.  B.  Paine,  1912. 

Read  "  John  Bull "  in  "  The  Sketch  Book  "  for  the  passages  in 
specific  reference  to  the  English  government. 

Read  "  Rural  Life  "  in  "The  Sketch  Book"  for  a  further  obligation 
to  Goldsmith  — the  influence  of  "The  Deserted  Village." 

Read  "  Bracebridge  Hall"  for  a  further  development  of  English  life 
and  character  begun  in  the  "  Sketch  Book  "  essays  discussed  in  the  text. 

Read  "The  Alhambra"  for  a  comparison  in  subject  matter,  method, 
and  tone  with  the  three  stories  in  "  The  Sketch  Book." 

Pick  out  the  five  essays  in  literary  criticism  in  "The  Sketch  Book" 
for  the  light  they  throw  on  Irving's  literary  likings  and  critical  acumen. 


140       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Read  in  "  The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow  "  the  description  of  the 
domestic  group  at  the  Van  Tassels  for  comparison  with  similar 
pictures  in  the  English  sketches. 

Compare  the  "  Croaker  Papers  "  with  the  "Salmagundi  Papers." 

Read  Halleck's  "  Fanny "  (see  Boynton,  "  American  Poetry," 
pp.  154-158)  for  comparison  in  method  with  the  "Croaker  Papers." 

Read  Joseph  Rodman  Drake's  "  To  a  Friend "  for  an  appeal 
for  originality  characteristic  of  the  period  and  then  read  "  The 
Culprit  Fay"  ("American  Poetry,"  pp.  136-146)  for  a  nonfulfillment 
of  the  authors'  own  appeal. 


CHAPTER  X 
JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER 

Cooper's  life  (1789-1851)  was  inclosed  by  Irving's,  for  he 
was  born  six  years  later  and  died  eight  years  earlier.  When  he 
was  a  little  more  than  a  year  old  his  father  took  his  large  family 
—  Cooper  was  the  eleventh  of  twelve  children  —  to  the  shore 
of  Otsego  Lake,  New  York,  where  he  had  bought  a  tract,  after 
the  Revolution.  It  was  uncleared  country,  but  here  Judge 
Cooper  laid  out  what  developed  into  Cooperstown,  established 
a  big  estate,  and  built  a  pretentious  house.  His  scheme  of  life 
was  aristocratic,  more  like  that  of  the  first  Virginia  settlers 
than  like  that  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans.  Here  the  boy  grew 
up  in  an  ambitious  home,  but  among  primitive  frontier  sur 
roundings,  until  he  needed  better  schooling  than  Cooperstown 
could  offer.  To  prepare  for  Yale  College  he  was  sent  to  Albany 
and  put  in  charge  of  the  rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church.  Under 
this  gentleman  he  gained  not  only  the  "book  learning"  for 
which  he  went  but  also  a  further  sense  of  the  gentry's  point 
of  view  —  a  point  of  view  which  throughout  his  life  made  him 
frankly  critical  of  the  defects  in  America  even  while  he  was 
passionately  loyal  to  it.  At  thirteen  he  was  admitted  to  Yale. 
This  sounds  as  if  he  were  a  precocious  child,  but  there  was 
nothing  unusual  in  the  performance,  for  the  colleges  were 
hardly  more  than  advanced  academies  where  most  of  the  stu 
dents  received  their  degrees  well  before  they  were  twenty.  This 
was  the  institution  which  John  Trumbull — who  had  passed  his 
examinations  at  seven! — had  held  up  to  scorn  in  his  " Progress 
of  Dulness,"  and  where  his  hero,  Tom  Brainless, 

Four  years  at  college  dozed  away 
In  sleep,  and  slothfulness  and  play, 
141 


142        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

but  even  from  here  Cooper's  unstudious  and  disorderly  ways 
caused  his  dismissal  in  his  second  year.  His  formal  education 
was  now  ended,  and  in  his  development  as  a  writer  it  was 
doubtless  much  less  important  than  his  earlier  years  in  the 
wilderness  west  of  the  Hudson  River  or  those  that  were  to 
follow  on  the  ocean.  In  1806  he  was  sent  to  sea  for  a  year 
on  a  merchant  vessel,  and  on  his  return  was  commissioned  a 
midshipman  in  the  United  States  Navy.  His  service  lasted 
for  three  years,  from  January  i,  1808,  to  May,  1811,  and  was 
ended  by  his  marriage  to  the  daughter  of  a  Tory  who  had 
fought  on  the  British  side  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Then 
for  nine  years  he  settled  down  to  what  seemed  like  respectable 
obscurity,  living  part  of  the  time  at  his  father-in-law's  home, 
part  of  the  time  at  Cooperstown,  and  the  last  three  years  at 
Scarsdale,  New  York. 

From  these  first  thirty  years  of  his  life  there  seemed  to  be 
little  prospect  that  he  was  to  become  a  novelist  of  world-wide 
and  permanent  reputation.  There  is  no  record  that  anyone,, 
even  himself,  expected  him  to  be  a  writer.  Yet  it  is  quite 
evident,  as  one  looks  back  over  it,  that  his  preparation  had 
been  rich  and  varied.  He  had  lived  on  land  and  on  sea,  in 
city  and  country,  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Connecticut. 
He  had  breathed  in  the  stories  of  the  Revolutionary  days, 
grown  up  on  the  frontier,  and  been  a  part  of  America  in  the 
making.  And  from  his  father,  his  tutor,  and  his  wife  and  her 
family,  as  well  as  from  his  travel,  he  had  learned  to  see 
America  through  critical  eyes.  He  had  the  material  to  write 
with  and  the  experience  to  make  him  use  it  wisely.  The  one 
apparently  missing  factor  was  the  most  important  of  all  — 
there  was  not  the  slightest  indication  that  he  had  either  the 
will  or  the  power  to  use  his  pen. 

The  story  of  how  he  began  to  write  is  a  familiar  one.  Out 
of  patience  with  the  crudity  of  an  English  society  novel  that 
he  had  been  reading,  he  said  boastfully  that  he  could  write  a 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  143 

better  one  himself.  Many  another  novel-reader  and  playgoer 
has  talked  with  equal  recklessness  after  a  literary  disappoint 
ment  in  the  library  or  the  theater,  but  the  remarkable  part  of 
the  story  is  that  in  1820  Cooper  made  his  boast  good.  The 
resultant  novel,  "  Precautiqn^"  was  successful  in  only  one 
respect  —  that  it  started  Cooper  on  his  career.  It  was  a  color 
less  tale  with  an  English  plot,  located  in  English  scenes  of 
which  he  had  no  first-hand  knowledge.  It  made  so  little 
impression  on  public  or  publishers  that  when  his  next  novel 
was  ready,  in  1821,  he  had  to  issue  it  at  his  own  expense; 
and  he  made  this  next  venture,  ^The  Spy,"  in  part  at  least 
because  of  his  friends'  comment  —  characteristic  of  that  self- 
conscious  period  —  that  he  would  have  been  more  patriotic 
to  write  on  an  American  theme.  To  let  Cooper  tell  his 
own  story : 

The  writer,  while  he  knew  how  much  of  what  he  had  done  was 
purely  accidental,  felt  the  reproach  to  be  one  that,  in  a  measure, 
was  just.  As  the  only  atonement  in  his  power,  he  determined  to 
inflict  a  second  book,  whose  subject  should  admit  no  cavil,  not  only 
on  the  world,  but  on  himself.  He  chose  patriotism  for  his  theme ; 
and  to  those  who  read  this  introduction  and  the  book  itself,  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  he  [selected  his  hero]  as  the  best 
illustration  of  his  subject. 

By  means  of  this  story  of  war  times,  involving  the  amazing 
adventures  of  Harvey  Birch,  the  spy,  Cooper  won  his  public ; 
a  fact  which  is  amply  proven  by  the  sale  of  3500  copies  of 
his  third  novel,  "  The  Pioneer^"  on  the  morning  of  publication. 
This  story  came  nearer  home  to  him,  for  the  scenery  and 
the  people  were  those  among  whom  he  had  lived  as  a  boy  at 
Cooperstown.  Working  with  this  familiar  material,  based  on 
the  country  and  the  developing  life  which  was  a  part  of  his 
very  self,  Cooper  wrote  the  first  of  his  famous  "  Leatherstock- 
ing "  series.  The  five  stories,  taken  together,  complete  the 
long  epic  of  the  American  Indian  to  which  Longfellow  was  later 


144       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

to  supply  the  earlier  cantos  in  "  Hiawatha."    For  Cooper  took  up 
the  chronicle  where  Longfellow  was  to  drop  it  (see  p.  276) : 

Then  a  darker,  drearier  vision 
Passed  before  me,  vague  and  cloud-like ; 
I  beheld  our  nation  scattered, 
All  forgetful  of  my  counsels, 
Weakened,  warring  with  each  other : 
Saw  the  remnants  of  our  people 
Sweeping  westward,  wild  and  woful, 
Like  the  cloud-rack  of  a  tempest, 
Like  the  withered  leaves  of  Autumn. 

It  was  not  a  deliberate  undertaking,  planned  from  start  to 
finish ;  it  was  not  written  in  the  order  in  which  the  stories 
occurred  —  like  the  long  series  by  Winston  Churchill ;  it  did 
not  even  conceive  of  the  scout  as  the  central  character  of 
the  first  book,  much  less  of  the  four  which  were  to  follow  it. 
Cooper  did  not  even  seem  to  appreciate  after  he  had  written 
"  The  Pioneer^'  how  rich  a  vein  he  had  struck,  for  within  the 
next  two  years  he  wrote  "  The  Pilot "  a  sea  story,  and  "  Lionel 
Lincoln,  or  the  Leaguers  of  Boston,"  supposed  to  be  the  first 
of  a  series  of  thirteen  colonial  stories  which  were  never  carried 
beyond  this  point.  However,  in  1826  he  came  back  to  Leather- 
stocking  in  "The  Last  of  the  Mohicans,"  second  both  in 
authorship  and  in  order  of  reading,  and  in  1827  he  wrote  "The 
Prairie,"  the  last  days  of  the  scout.  It  was  not  till  1840  and 
1841  that  he  completed  the  series  with  the  first  and  third  num 
bers,  "The  Deerslayer"  and  "The  Pathfinder."  To  summarize: 
•the  stories  deal  in  succession  with  Deerslayer,  a  young  woods 
man  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  then  Hawkeye, 
the  hero  of  "The  Last  of  the  Mohicans,"  a  story  of  the  French 
and  Indian  War ;  next,  Pathfinder ;  fourth,  Leatherstocking, 
the  hero  of  "The  Pioneer,"  in  the  decade  just  before  1800  ; 
and  finally,  with  the  trapper,  who  in  1803  left  the  farming  lands 
of  New  York  to  go  westward  with  the  emigrants  who  were 
attracted  by  the  new  government  lands  of  "  The  Prairie." 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  145 

With  the  writing  of  the  second  of  the  series,  Cooper  con 
cluded  the  opening  period  in  his  authorship.  In  a  little  over 
six  years  he  had  published  six  novels  and  had  shown  promise 
of  all  that  he  was  to  accomplish  in  later  life.  He  had  attempted 
four  kinds :  stories  of  frontier  life,,  in  which  he  was  always 
successful;  sea  tales,  fdr  which  he  was  peculiarly  fitted ;  his 
torical  novels,  which  he  did  indifferently  well ;  and  studies  in 
social  life,  in  which  he  had  started  his  career  with  a  failure 
but  to  which  he  returned  again  and  again  like  a  moth  to 
the  flame. 

To  "  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans  "  the  verdict  of  time  has 
awarded  first  place  in  the  long  roster  of  his  works.  It  is  the 
one  book  written  by  Cooper  that  is  devoted  most  completely 
to  the  vanishing  race.  Three  passages  set  and  hold  the  key 
to  the  story.  The  first  is  from  the  author's  introduction  :  "  Of 
all  the  tribes  named  in  these  pages,  there  exist  only  a  few 
half-civilized  beings  of  the  Oneidas  on  the  reservation  of  their 
people  in  New  York.  The  rest  have  disappeared,  either  from 
the  regions  in  which  their  fathers  dwelt,  or  altogether  from 
the  earth."  The  second  is  a  speech  from  Chingachgook*  to 
Hawkeye  in  the  third  chapter,  where  they  are  first  introduced : 
"  Where  are  the  blossoms  of  these  summers?  —  fallen,  one  by 
one :  so  all  of  my  family  departed,  each  in  his  turn,  to  the 
land  of  the  spirits.  I  am  on  the  hilltop,  and  must  go  down 
into  the  valley ;  and  when  Uncas  follows  in  my  footsteps,  there 
will  no  longer  be  any  of  the  blood  of  the  Sagamores,  for  my 
boy  is  the  last  of  the  Mohicans."  The  third  is  the  last 
speech  of  the  book,  by  the  sage  Tamenund  :  "  It  is  enough," 
he  said.  "Go,  children  of  the  Lenape,  the  anger  of  the  Manitou 
is  not  done.  Why  should  Tamenund  stay  ?  The  pale-faces  are 
masters  of  the  earth,  and  the  time  of  the  red-men  has  not  yet 
come  again.  My  day  has  been  too  long.  In  the  morning  I  saw 
the  sons  of  Unamis  happy  and  strong ;  and  yet,  before  the 
night  has  come,  have  I  lived  to  see  the  last  warrior  of  the 
wise  race  of  the  Mohicans." 


146       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

.#  For  many  years  it  was  a  habit  of  critics  to  scoff  at  Cooper's 
Indian  characters  as  romantic  and  idealized  portraits  of  the  red 
man.  This  judgment  may  have  arisen  during  the  period  of 
Cooper's  great  unpopularity,  when  nothing  was  too  unfair  to 
please  the  American  public ;  but,  once  said,  it  persisted  and 
was  quoted  from  decade  to  decade  by  people  who  cannot  have 
read  his  books  with  any  attention.  It  was  insisted  that  the 
woodcraft  with  which  Cooper  endowed  the  Indians  was  beyond 
possibility,  yet  later  naturalists  have  recorded  time  and  again 
marvels  quite  as  incredible  as  any  in  Cooper's  pages.  It  was 
reiterated  that  their  dignity,  self-control,  tribal  loyalty,  and 
reverence  for  age  were  overdrawn,  yet  many  another  authority 
has  testified  to  the  existence  of  these  virtues.  And,  finally, 
it  was  charged  that  they  were  never  such  a  heroic  and  supe 
rior  people  as  Cooper  made  them,  though  study  of  his  por 
traits  will  show  that  Cooper  did  not  make  them  half  as 
admirable  as  he  is  said  to  have  done.  Tamenund  is  simply  a 
mouthpiece ;  Uncas  and  Chingachgook  are  the  only  living 
Indian  characters  whom  he  makes  at  all  admirable,  but  he 
acknowledges  the  differences  between  their  standards  and  the 
white  man's  in  the  murder  and  scalping  of  the  French  sentinel 
after  he  had  been  passed  in  safety :  "  'T  would  have  been  a 
cruel  and  inhuman  act  for  a  white-skin ;  but  't  is  the  gift  and 
natur'  of  an  Indian,  and  I  suppose  it  should  not  be  denied." 
All  the  other  Indians,  beneath  their  formal  ways  in  family,  camp, 
and  council,  Cooper  presents  as  treacherous  and  bloodthirsty 
at  bottom,  a  savage  people  who  show  their  real  natures  in  the 
Massacre  of  Fort  William  Henry,  the  chief  historical  event  in 
the  book.  On  this  ground  he  partly  explains  and  partly  justi 
fies  the  conquest  of  the  red  men  by  the  white. 

other  people  of  the  story  are  types  who  appear  in  all 
s  novels.    Most  important  is  the  unschooled  American : 

He  has  drawn  you  one  character,  though,  that  is  new, 
One  wildflower  he  's  plucked  that  is  wet  with  the  dew 
Of  this  fresh  Western  world. 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  147 

He  is  an  out-of-door  creature,  intolerant  of  town  life,  skep-  , 
tical  of  any  book  but  the  book  of  nature,  a  lover  of  the  woods 
and  mountains,  and  a  worshiper  of  the  God  who  made  them. 
He  has  no  "  theory  of  life  "  or  of  government  or  of  America, 
but  he  is  just  as  truly  a  product  of  American  conditions  as 
the  mountain  laurel  or  the  goldenrod.  Naj£y,.Bumppo,  central" 
figure  of  the  "  Leatherstocking "  series,  is  blood  brother  to 
Harvey  Birch  in  "The  Spy,"  to  Long  Tom  Coffin  in  "The 
Pilot,"  to  Captain  Truck  in  "  Homeward  Bound  "  and  "  Home 
as  Found,"  and  to  a  similiar  man  in  almost  every  one  of  the 
other  stories.  Quite  in  contrast  to  this  "wildflower"  is  a 
potted  plant,  of  whom  Cooper  is  almost  equally  fond.  This  is 
the  polished  gentleman  of  the  world,  such  as  Montcalm,  who 
embodies  the  culture  and  manners  that  the  New  World  needed. 
Cooper  admired  such  a  man  almost  to  the  point  of  infatuation, 
but  presented  him  very  badly ;  he  made  an  idea  of  him  rather 
than  a  living  character,  a  veneer  of  manners  without  any 
solid  backing,  superficial,  complacent,  and  hollow.  One  feels 
no  affection  for  him  and  very  little  respect.  He  annoys  one 
by  so  evidently  thanking  God  that  he  is  not  as  other  men. 
Another  type  is  the  pedant  David  Gamut,  a  man  who  is 
made  grotesque  by  his  fondness  for  his  own  narrow  specialty. 
David,  a  teacher  of  psalm-singing,  bores  the  other  characters 
by  continually  "talking  shop,"  and  breaks  into  melody  in  and 
out  of  season,  capping  the  climax  by  chanting  so  vociferously 
during  the  massacre  that  the  Indians  regard  him  as  a  harmless 
lunatic  and  spare  him  then  and  thereafter.  Dr.  Sitgreaves  of 
"The  Spy,"  and  Owen  Bat,  the  doctor  of  "The  Prairie," 
are  struck  from  the  same  die.  Finally,  among  the  leading 
types,  must  be  mentioned  the  "  females." 

The  use  of  this  word,  which  sounds  odd  and  uncouth  to-day, 
was  general  a  hundred  years  ago,  when  "lady"  was  reserved 
to  indicate  a  class  distinction,  and  "  woman  "  had  not  become 
the  common  noun ;  but  the  change  is  not  merely  one  of  name, 
for  the  women  of  books  and  the  women  of  life  were  far  less 


148        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

self-reliant  than  the  women  of  the  twentieth  century.  Then  they 
were  frankly  regarded  not  only  as  dependents  but  as  inferiors. 
A  striking  evidence  of  this  can  be  found  in  the  appropriate 
pages  in  Bartlett's  "  Familiar  Quotations."  The  majority  of 
the  quoted  passages  are  culled  from  poets  who  wrote  before 
the  rise  of  the  woman's  movement,  and  the  tone  of  the 
passages  taken  as  a  whole  is  distinctly  supercilious  and  con 
descending.  "Women  are  lovely  at  their  best,"  the  poets 
seemed  to  agree,  "  but  after  all,  they  are  merely — women.  And 
at  less  than  their  best,  the  least  said  about  them  the  better." 
Cooper  was  by  no  means  behind  his  time  in  his  attitude ; 
indeed,  he  was,  if  anything,  rather  ahead  of  it.  His  feeling  for 
them  seems  to  have  been  that  expressed  in  the  famous  passage 
from  "  Marmion  "  of  which  the  first  half  is  usually  all  that 

is  quoted : 

O  woman  !  in  our  hours  of  ease 

Uncertain,  coy,  and  hard  to  please, 

When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow, 
A  ministering  angel  thou  ! 

In  the  ordinary  situations  in  Cooper's  novels  his  "  females " 
were  things  to  patronize  and  flatter,  —  for  flattery  never  goes 
unattended  by  her  sardonic  companion,  —  but  in  times  of 
stress  they  showed  heroic  powers  of  endurance.  The  three 
introduced  in  the  first  chapter  of  "  The  Spy  "  were  endowed, 
according  to  the  text,  with  "  softness  and  affability,"  "internal 
innocence  and  peace,"  and  expressed  themselves  by  blushes 
and  timid  glances.  The  two  "lovely  beings"  of  "The  Last 
of  the  Mohicans"  are  even  more  fulsomely  described.  "The 
flush  which  still  lingered  above  the  pines  in  the  western  sky 
was  not  more  bright  nor  delicate  than  the  bloom  "  on  Alice's 
cheeks ;  and  Cora  was  the  fortunate  possessor  of  "  a  counte 
nance  that  was  exquisitely  regular  and  dignified,  and  sur 
passingly  beautiful."  In  the  passage  that  follows  they  are  not 
referred  to  simply,  but  always  with  a  bow  and  a  smile  —  "  the 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  149 

reluctant  fair  one,"  "the  dark-eyed  Cora,"  and  as  they  finally 
disappear  on  horseback  through  the  woods,  the  reader  is  expected 
not  to  laugh  at  the  final  ridiculous  tableau  of  "the  light  and 
graceful  forms  of  the  females  waving  among  the  trees."  Of 
course  the  readers  to  whom  Cooper  addressed  this  did  not 
laugh.  They  realized  that  in  speaking  of  women  he  was  simply 
using  the  conventional  language  of  the  day,  which  was  not 
intended  to  mean  what  it  said ;  that  he  was  introducing  a  pair 
of  normal,  lovely  girls,  and  that  the  best  to  be  required  of  a 
normal  girl  was  that  she  should  be  lovely  — "only  this  and 
nothing  more."  There  was  no  evidence  that  Cora  and  Alice 
had  minds ;  they  were  not  expected  to  ;  instead  they  had  warm 
hearts  and  "  female  beauty."  Lowell  was  probably  not  unfair 
in  his  comment : 

And  the  women  he  draws  from  one  model  don't  vary, 
All  sappy  as  maples  and  flat  as  a  prairie. 

But  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  Cooper's  time  the  model 
was  a  prevailing  one,  and  that  it  was  only  in  his  old  age  that 
women  began  in  any  large  numbers  to  depart  from  it. 

Cooper  was  all  his  life  a  more  and  more  conscious  observer 
and  critic  of  American  character  and  American  conditions. 
As  a  result  his  stories  take  hold  of  the  -reader,  lor  the  very 
simple  reason  that  they  are  based  on  actual  life  and  xeaj 
people^  They  had,  moreover,  and  still  have,  the  added 
advantage  that  they  are  based  orv  a  life  that  was  fascinatingly 
unfamiliar  to  the  great  majority  of  his  readers,  and  so,  though 
realistic  in  their  details,  they  exert  the  appeal  of  distant 
romance.  All  through  the  eighteenth  century,  and  particularly 
through  the  last  third  of  it,  literature  had  been  inclining  to 
dwell  on  the  joys  of  life  in  field  and  forest.  Addison  and  his 
followers  had  handed  on  the  spell  of  the  old  ballads  of  primi 
tive  adventure.  Pope  had  dabbled  with  the  "poor  Indian" 
and  Goldsmith  had  written  his  celebrated  line  about  "  Niagara's 
.  .  .  thundering  sound."  Collins  and  Gray  had  harked  back 


150        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

to  the  romantic  past,  and  Burns  and  Wordsworth  had  confined 
their  poems  to  the  peasantry  among  whom  they  lived.  Irving's 
reply  to  "English  Writers  on  America"  (see  p.  120)  alluded 
to  the  frequency  of  books  on  distant  lands  and  peoples.  So 
when  Cooper  began  publishing  his  stories  of  adventure  in  un 
trodden  lands,  he  found  an  attentive  public  not  only  in  America 
but  in  England,  and  not  only  in  England  but  all  over  Europe, 
where,  as  soon  as  his  novels  appeared,  they  were  reprinted  in 
thirty-four  different  places. 

With  the  literary  asset  of  this  invaluable  material  Cooper 
combined  his  ability  to  telLan  exciting  story.  There  is  nothing 
intricate  or  skillful  about  his  plots  as  pieces  of  composition. 
In  fact  they  seldom  if  ever  come  up  to  any  striking  finish. 
They  do  not  so  much  conclude  as  die,  and  as  a  rule  they 
"  die  hard."  They  are  made  up  of  strings  of  exciting  adven 
tures,  in  which  characters  whom  the  reader  likes  are  put  into 
danger  and  then  rescued  from  it.  "The  Last  of  the  Mohicans" 
has  its  best  material  for  a  conclusion  in  the  middle  of  the 
book,  with  the  thrilling  restoration  of  Alice  and  Cora  to  their 
father's  arms  at  Fort  William  Henry ;  but  the  story  is  only 
half  long  enough  at  that  point,  so  the  author  separated  them 
again  by  means  of  the  massacre  and  carried  it  on  more  and 
more  slowly  to  the  required  length  and  the  deaths  of  Cora 
and  the  last  of  the  Mohicans.  For  "The  Spy,"  the  last 
chapter  was  actually  written,  printed,  and  put  into  page  form 
some  weeks  before  the  latter  part  had  even  been  planned. 
Cooper's  devices  for  starting  and  ending  the  exciting  scenes 
seem  often  commonplace,  partly  because  so  many  later  writers 
have  imitated  him  in  using  them.  Mark  Twain,  in  "  Fenimore 
Cooper's  Literary  Offenses,"  said  derisively  that  the  "  Leather- 
stocking  Tales"  might  well  have  been  named  "The  Broken 
Twig  "  series,  because  villain  and  hero  so  often  discover  each 
other  as  the  result  of  a  misstep  on  a  snapping  branch.  He 
might  have  substituted  "A  Shot  Rang  Out"  as  his  title,  on 
account  of  the  frequency  with  which  episodes  are  thus  started 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  151 

or  finished.  Bret  Harte's  burlesque  in  his  "  Condensed  Novels" 
shows  how  broadly  Cooper  laid  his  methods  open  to  attack 
from  the  scoffers.  Yet  the  fact  remains  that  few  who  have 
come  to  scoff  could  have  remained  to  rival  Cooper.  He  has 
enlisted  millions  of  readers  in  dozens  of  languages  ;  he  has 
fascinated  them  by  the  doings  of  woodsmen  who  were  as 
mysteriously  skillful  as  the  town-bred  Sherlock  Holmes ; 
he  has  thrilled  by  the  genuine  excitement  of  deadly  struggles 
and  hairbreadth  'scapes ;  and  the  sale  of  his  books,  a  hundred 
years  after  he  first  addressed  the  public,  would  gladden  the 
heart  of  many  a  modern  novelist. 

As  a  chapter  in  the  literary  history  of  America  there  is 
another  side  of  Cooper's  career  which  is  intensely  interesting. 
It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  he  did  not  abandon  the 
writing  of  novels  on  social  life  with  the  unsuccessful  "  Precau 
tion."  Lowell  refers  to  this  fact  in  the  "Fable  for  Critics": 

There  is  one  thing  in  Cooper  I  like,  too,  and  that  is 

That  on  manners  he  lectures  his  countrymen  gratis : 

Not  precisely  so  either,  because,  for  a  rarity, 

He  is  paid  for  his  tickets  in  unpopularity. 

Now  he  may  overcharge  his  American  pictures, 

But  you  '11  grant  there  's  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  his  strictures ; 

And  I  honor  the  man  who  is  willing  to  sink 

Half  his  present  repute  for  the  freedom  to  think, 

And,  when  he  has  thought,  be  his  cause  strong  or  weak, 

Will  risk  t'other  half  for  the  freedom  to  speak, 

Caring  naught  for  what  vengeance  the  mob  has  in  store, 

Let  that  mob  be  the  upper  ten  thousand  or  lower. 

In  1826  Cooper  went  abroad  with  his  family,  staying  on  the 
other  side  for  nearly  six  and  a  half  years.  His  reputation  was 
well  established,  and  he  left  with  the  best  wishes  of  his  country 
men  and  the  respect  of  the  many  foreigners  who  knew  him 
through  his  books.  He  was  an  ardent  believer  in  his  own 
land  and  in  the  theory  of  its  government,  and  at  the  same 
time  he  was  an  admirer,  as  he  had  been  taught  to  be,  of  the 


152        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

dignity  and  the  traditions  of  the  Old  World.  It  was  to  be 
expected  that  he  would  grow  wiser  with  travel  and  that  his 
later  works,  while  retaining  all  their  interest  as  stories,  would 
be  enriched  by  a  deeper  and  mellower  feeling  for  humankind. 
But  he  had  already  displayed  one  weakness  which  was  destined 
to  increase  in  him  until  it  almost  wholly  offset  his  virtues  with 
his  readers.  He  was  positive  to  the  last  degree  in  the  opinions 
he  held,  and  brutally  untactful  in  expressing  them.  If  he  had 
ever  heard  of  the  soft  answer  that  turneth  away  wrath,  he  felt 
contempt  for  it.  Thus,  for  example,  in  the  preface  to  "  The 
Pioneer"  he  referred  to  the  least  of  authors'  ills,  the  con 
tradiction  among  critics:  "There  I  am,  left  like  an  ass  between 
two  locks  of  hay ;  so  that  I  have  determined  to  relinquish 
my  animate  nature,  and  remain  stationary,  like  a  lock  of  hay 
between  two  asses."  The  fruit  of  travel  was  naturally  a  more 
vivid  sense  of  the  differences  between  American  and  European 
ways,  a  fertile  crop  of  opinions,  a  belligerent  assertion  of  them, 
and  an  unhappy  series  of  quarrels  with  all  sorts  of  Americans  — 
business  men,  editors,  naval  officers,  congressmen,  and  the 
majority  of  his  readers,  a  vast  army  of  representatives  of 
the  upper  ten  thousand  and  the  lower. 

During  the  first  three  years  abroad  he  went  on,  under  the 
headway  gained  at  home,  with  three  novels  of  American 
themes  —  one  in  the  "  Leatherstocking  "  series,  one  on  Puritan 
life  in  New  England,  and  one  sea  story.  Then  he  went  off 
on  a  side  issue  and  sacrificed  the  next  ten  years  to  contro 
versial  books  which  are  very  interesting  side  lights  on  literary 
history  but  very  defective  novels.  The  whole  sequence  started 
with  Cooper's  resentment  at  the  "certain  condescension  in 
foreigners "  which  was  to  make  Lowell  smart  nearly  forty 
years  later.  To  meet  this,  and  particularly  the  condescension 
of  the  English,  he  left  the  field  of  fiction  to  write  "  Notions 
of  the  Americans ;  Picked  up  by  a  Traveling  Bachelor." 
It  failed  of  its  purpose  because  it  was  too  complacent  about 
America  and  now  and  then  too  offensive  about  England, 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  153 

but  the  underlying  trouble  with  it  was  its  aggressive  tone. 
A  man  could  hardly  make  friends  for  America  when  he  was 
in  the  temper  to  write  of  Englishmen,  "  We  have  good  reason 
to  believe,  there  exists  a  certain  querulous  class  of  readers 
who  consider  even  the  most  delicate  and  reserved  commenda 
tions  of  this  western  world  as  so  much  praise  unreasonably 
and  dishonestly  abstracted  from  themselves."  Cooper  never 
could  refrain  from  "  the  retort  of  abuse  "  against  which  Irving 
had  advised  in  "  The  Sketch  Book."  Then  followed  three 
novels  located  in  Venice,  Germany,  and  Switzerland,  —  "  The 
Bravo,"  "The  Headsman,"  and  "The  Heidenmauer,"  — all 
designed  to  show  how  charming  was  Old  World  tradition  and 
how  mistaken  was  its  undemocratic  scheme  of  life.  They  were 
failures,  like  "  Precaution,"  because  Cooper  could  not  write  an 
effective  novel  which  attempted  to  prove  anything.  It  was  his 
gift  to  tell  a  good  story  well  and  to  build  it  out  of  the 
material  in  the  midst  of  which  he  had  grown  up. 

By  the  time  he  was  ready  to  come  back  to  America  he  had 
become  kinked  and  querulous.  The  story  of  his  controversies 
is  too  long  for  detailing  in  this  chapter.  The  chief  literary 
result  of  it  is  the  pair  of  stories  "  Homeward  Bound  "  and 
"  Home  as  Found."  The  point  of  them,  for  they  again  were 
written  to  prove  something,  was  to  expose  the  crudities  of  a 
commercialized  America.  There  is  no  question  that  the  coun 
try  was  crude  and  raw  (see  pp.  111-114).  A  period  of  such 
rapid  development  was  bound  to  produce  for  the  time  poor 
architecture,  bad  manners,  shifty  business,  superficial  learning, 
and  questionable  politics.  Many  other  critics,  home  and  foreign, 
were  telling  the  truth  about  America  to  its  great  discomfort. 
Cooper's  picture  of  Aristabulus  Bragg  was  probably  not  unfair 
to  hundreds  of  his  contemporaries : 

This  man  is  an  epitome  of  all  that  is  good  and  all  that  is  bad,  in  a 
very  large  class  of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  is  quick-witted,  prompt  in 
action,  enterprising  in  all  things  in  which  he  has  nothing  to  lose,  but 
wary  and  cautious  in  all  things  in  which  he  has  a  real  stake,  and  ready 


I  54        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

to  turn  not  only  his  hand,  but  his  heart  and  his  principles,  to  anything 
that  offers  an  advantage.  With  him,  literally,  "  Nothing  is  too  high  to 
be  aspired  to,  nothing  too  low  to  be  done."  He  will  run  for  governor 
or  for  town  clerk,  just  as  opportunities  occur,  is  expert  in  all  the  prac 
tices  of  his  profession,  has  had  a  quarter's  dancing,  with  three  years 
in  the  classics,  and  turned  his  attention  toward  medicine  and  divinity, 
before  he  finally  settled  down  to  law.  Such  a  compound  of  shrewd 
ness,  impudence,  common-sense,  pretension,  humility,  cleverness, 
vulgarity,  kind-heartedness,  duplicity,  selfishness,  law-honesty,  moral 
fraud,  and  mother  wit,  mixed  .up  with  a  smattering  of  learning  and 
much  penetration  in  practical  things,  can  hardly  be  described,  as  any 
one  of  his  prominent  qualities  is  certain  to  be  met  by  another  quite 
as  obvious  that  is  almost  its  converse.  Mr.  Bragg,  in  short,  is  purely 
a  creature  of  circumstances. 

The  weakness  of  Cooper's  criticisms  on  America  js  not  that 
they  were  unjust,  but  that  they  were  so  evidently  ill-tempered 
and  bad-manjiered.  He  made  the  utter  mistake  of  locating  the 
returning  Europeans,  the  accusers  of  America,  in  Templeton 
Hall,  which  was  the  name  of  his  own  country  place.  He 
involved  them  in  his  own  quarrel  with  the  villagers  over  the 
use  of  a  picnic  ground  belonging  to  him,  and  thus  loaded  on 
himself  all  the  priggishness  which  he  ascribed  to  them.  The 
public  was  only  too  ready  to  take  it  as  a  personal  utterance 
when  he  made  one  of  them  say : 

I  should  prefer  the  cold,  dogged  domination  of  English  law,  with 
its  fruits,  the  heartlessness  of  a  sophistication  without  parallel,  to  being 
trampled  on  by  every  arrant  blackguard  that  may  happen  to  traverse 
this  valley  in  his  wanderings  after  dollars. 

It  is  a  misfortune  that  most  men  and  women  who  are  willing 
to  risk  repute  for  the  freedom  to  think  and  speak  are  eccentric 
in  other  respects.  They  are  unusual  first  of  all  in  having  minds 
so  independent  that  they  presume  to  disagree  with  the  majority 
even  in  silence.  They  are  more  unusual  still  in  having  the 
courage  to  disagree  aloud.  When  they  have  said  their  say, 
however,  their  neighbors  begin  to  carp  at  them,  respectable 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  155 

people  to  pass  by  on  the  other  side,  and  the  newspapers  to  dis 
tort  what  they  have  said  and  then  abuse  them  for  what  they 
never  uttered.  The  honest  and  truly  reckless  talkers,  stung  to 
the  quick,  feel  injured  and  innocent,  talk  extravagantly,  rely 
more  and  more  on  their  own  judgments  and  less  and  less  on 
the  facts,  and  sooner  or  later  lose  their  influence,  if  they  do  not 
become  outcasts.  In  the  end  they  have  the  courage  and  honesty 
with  which  they  started,  a  few  deploring  friends,  and  a  thou 
sand  enemies  who  hate  them  with  an  honest  and  totally 
unjustified  hatred.  It  is  a  tragic  round  which  all  but  the  most 
extraordinary  of  free  speakers  seem  doomed  to  travel.  And 
Cooper  did  not  escape  it.  Yet  he  did  have  the  remarkable 
strength  and  good  fortune  to  pass  out  of  this  vale  of  con 
troversy  toward  the  end  of  his  life.  With  1842  his  campaign 
against  the  public  ceased  —  and  theirs  against  him.  He  spent 
his  last  years  happily  at  Copperstown  and  slowly  returned  into 
an  era  of  good  feeling.  It  was  in  these  later  years  that  Lowell 
paid  him  the  well-deserved  tribute  quoted  above.  He  was 
really  a  great  patriot.  If  his  love  of  America  led  him  into  this 
sea  of  troubles,  it  was  the  same  love  that  made  him  the  suc 
cessful  writer  of  a  masterly  series  of  American  stories.  It  is 
the  native  character  of  the  man  that  is  worth  remembering, 
and  the  native  quality  of  his  books  that  earned  him  a  wide 
and  lasting  fame. 


BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER.  Collected  Works.  New  York.  1854. 
33  vols.  These  have  appeared  in  many  later  collected  and  individual 
editions  in  America,  England,  and  many  other  lands  and  languages. 
The  chief  works  appeared  originally  as  follows:  Precaution,  1820; 
The  Spy,  1821;  The  Pioneers,  1823;  The  Pilot,  1823;  Lionel 
Lincoln,  1825;  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans,  1826;  The  Prairie, 
1827;  The  Red  Rover,  1828 ;  Notions  of  the  Americans,  1828 ;  The 
Wept  of  Wish -ton- Wish,  1829;  The  Water-Witch,  1831;  The  Bravo, 
1831;  The  Heidenmauer,  1832;  The  Headsman,  1833;  The  Mom- 
kins,  1835;  Homeward  Bound,  1838;  Home  as  Found,  1838;  The 


156       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Pathfinder,  1840;  Mercedes  of  Castile,  1840;  The  Deerslayer,  1841 ; 
The  Two  Admirals,  1842;  Wing  and  Wing,  1842;  Wyandotte, 
1843  ;  Ned  Myers,  1843  ;  Afloat  and  Ashore,  1844  ;  Satanstoe,  1845  ; 
The  Chain  Bearer,  1845;  The  Redskins,  1846;  The  Crater,  1847; 
Jack  Tier,  1848;  The  Oak  Openings,  1848;  The  Sea  Lions, 
1849;  The  Ways  of  the  Hour,  1850. 

Bibliographies 

Good  bibliographies  in  Lounsbury's  Life  (see  below),  and  Cambridge 
History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  532-534. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

There   is   no   official   biography,    Cooper   having    opposed    such   a 

publication.     The   best    single   volume   is   by   T.  R.    Lounsbury 

(A.M.L.  Series). 
BROWNELL,  W.  C.    Cooper.    Scribner's  Magazine,  April,  1906.    Also 

in  American  Prose  Masters.   1909. 
BRYANT,  W.  C.    A  Discourse  on  the  Life   and  Genius  of  James 

Fenimore  Cooper.    1852. 
CLEMENS,  S.  L.  (Mark  Twain).  Fenimore  Cooper's  Literary  Offenses. 

North  American  Review,  July,  1895.    Also  in  How  to  tell  a  Story 

and  Other  Essays.    1897. 

ERSKINE,  JOHN.    Leading  American  Novelists.   1910. 
HILLARD,  G.  S.    Fenimore  Cooper.  Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1862. 
HOWE,  M.  A.  DEW.  James  Fenimore  Cooper.   The  Bookman,  March, 

1897.    Also  in  American  Bookmen.    1898. 
HOWELLS,  W.  D.    Heroines  of  Fiction.   1901. 
MATTHEWS,   B.    Fenimore   Cooper.    Atlantic  Monthly,   September, 

1907.    Also  in  Gateways  to  Literature.    1912. 
PHILLIPS,  MARY  E.  James  Fenimore  Cooper.   1913. 
SIMMS,  W.  C.    The  Writings  of  J.  Fenimore  Cooper.    Views  and 

Reviews.    1845.    $er'  *• 
STEDMAN,  E.  C.   Poe,  Cooper,  and  the  Hall  of  Fame.  North  American 

Review,  August,  1907. 
TUCKERMAN,   H.  T.     James    Fenimore    Cooper.     North   American 

Review,  October,  1859. 
VAN   DOREN,   CARL.     Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature. 

Vol.  I,  Bk.  II,  in  chap.  vi. 

VINCENT,  L.  H.    American  Literary  Masters.   1906. 
WILSON,  J.  G.    Cooper  Memorials  and  Memories.    The  Independent, 

January  31,  1901. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  Brownell's  defense  of  Cooper's  Indian  characters  .in  his 
"  Masters  of  American  Prose "  and  check  his  statements  by  your 
own  observations  in  a  selected  novel. 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER  157 

Read  the  comments  of  Brownell  in  "American  Prose  Masters," 
and  of  Lounsbury  in  the  A.M.L.  Series,  on  Cooper's  women,  and  then 
arrive  at  your  own  conclusions  from  the  reading  of  a  selected  novel. 

If  you  have  read  two  or  three. of  Cooper's  novels,  see  if  he  has 
introduced  his  usual  polished  gentleman  and  his  bore  or  pedant  in 
each,  and  see  how  nearly  these  characters  correspond  in  themselves 
and  in  their  story  value. 

Make  a  study  of  the  actual  plot  and  its  development  iri  any  selected 
riovel  of  Cooper's. 

Read  Mark  Twain's  essay  on  "  Fenimore  Cooper's  Literary 
Offenses  "  and  decide  on  how  far  it  is  fair  and  how  far  it  was 
dictated  by  Mark  Twain's  hostility  to  romantic  fiction. 

Read  Cooper's  prefaces  to  a  half-dozen  or  more  novels  for  the 
light  they  will  throw  on  his  belligerency  of  temper. 

Read  "  Home  as  Found  "  for  comparison  of  the  topics  treated 
with  those  in  the  "  Salmagundi "  and  "  Croaker  "  papers,  for  obser 
vation  on  the  variety  of  American  weaknesses  presented,  for  a 
decision  as  to  how  fundamental  or  how  superficial  these  weaknesses 
were,  and  for  a  conclusion  as  to  the  amount  of  evident  ill  temper 
in  the  book. 


CHAPTER  XI 
WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT 

The  mention  of  Irving,  Cooper,  and  Bryant  as  representa 
tives  of  New  York  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  is  likely 
to  mislead  students  into  thinking  of  them  as  literary  associates. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  they  seem  not  to  have  had  any  more  con 
tact  than  any  other  three  educated  residents  of  the  city.  They 
were  not  unsociable  men,  but  each  went  his  own  social  way. 
Until  his  period  of  controversy  Cooper  was  leading  member 
of  a  literary  club  of  which  he  had  been  the  founder.  Irving, 
without  going  to  the  pains  of  organizing  a  group,  was  the 
natural  center  of  one  which  delighted  in  his  company  and 
emulated  his  ways  of  thinking  and  writing.  Bryant,  instead 
of  being  drawn  after  either  of  these  older  men,  stepped  into 
journalism,  becoming  a  friend  of  the  great  editors  and  the 
political  leaders.  Irving  was  the  only  one  of  the  three  who 
was  born  and  bred  in  town.  Cooper  and  Bryant  were  not 
sons  of  New  York ;  they  were  among  the  first  of  its  long  list 
of  eminent  adopted  children. 

Bryant  (1794-1878)  was  born  at  Cummington,  Massachu 
setts.  His  descent  can  be  traced  to  the  earliest  Plymouth 
families,  and,  on  his  mother's  side,  to  Priscilla  Alden.  His 
father  was  a  much-loved  country  doctor,  the  third  of  the 
family  in  recent  generations  to  follow  this  budding  profession. 
He  was  a  man  of  dignities  in  his  town,  a  state  representative 
and  senator,  and  a  welcome  friend  of  the  Boston  book-lovers. 
His  services  were  so  freely  given,  however,  that  he  had  little 
money  to  spend  on  his  boy's  education.  This  was  carried  on, 
according  to  a  common  custom,  under  charge  of  clergymen, 
though  not  the  least  important  teaching  came  direct  from  the 

158 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  159 

father's  guidance  of  his  reading  and  criticism  of  his  writing. 
Bryant's  talents  began  to  show  promise  while  he  was  still 
a  boy,  for  he  read  eagerly,  and  in  his  early  'teens  wrote  a 
number  of  "  pieces  "  which  were  more  or  less  widely  circulated 
in  print.  One  of  these,  "  The__Embargo,''  a  political  satire 
addressed  to  President  Jefferson,  ran  to  two  editions  and 
roused  so  much  doubt  as  to  its  authorship  that  his  father's 
friends  soberly  certified  to  it  as  the  work  of  a  boy  of  thirteen. 
In  these  years  Bryant  made  Alexander  Pope  his  adored  model, 
and  for  so  young  an  imitator  he  succeeded  remarkably  well. 
A  little  later  he  fell  under  the  influence  of  a  group  of  minor 
Englishmen  who  have  rather  wickedly  been  nicknamed  the 
"  Grayeyar^i  Poets "  because  of  the  persistency  with  which 
they  versified  on  death,  the  grave,  and  the  after-life.  "Thana- 
topsis,"  written  before  he  was  eighteen,  was  a  reflection  of 
and  a  response  to  certain  lines  of  Kirke  White,  who  had  deeply 
stirred  his  imagination. 

Once  again  it  was  hard  to  persuade  the  literary  world  that 
young  Bryant  was  the  actual  author.  "  Thanatopsis  "  and  the 
"  Inscription  for  the  Entrance  to  a  Wood "  were  published 
in  the  North  American  Review  without  signature,  according 
to  the  usual  custom.  The  editors  had  requested  contributions 
from  the  elder  Bryant,  and  he  had  found  these  verses  unfinished 
at  home  and  had  sent  jthem  on  ^fter  copying  them  in  his  own 
handwriting.  The  more  famous  poem  so  impressed  the  editors 
that,  far  from  believing  it  the  work  of  an  American  boy, 
Richard  H.  Dana,  on  hearing  it  read  aloud,  said  to  his 
colleague,  "  Ah,  Phillips,  you  have  been  imposed  upon ;  no 
one  on  this  side  the  Atlantic  is  capable  of  writing  such  verses." 
In  the  meantime  Bryant  had  been  admitted  at  fifteen  to  the 
sophomore  class  at  Williams  College,  had  withdrawn  at  the  end 
of  a  year  intending  to  enter  Yale  the  next  autumn,  had  been 
unable  to  carry  out  the  plan  through  lack  of  funds,  and 
had  studied  law  and  been  admitted  to  the  bar.  While  still  in 
doubt  as  to  his  choice  of  profession  he  had  written  the  "  Lines 


160       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

to  a  Waterfowl,"  which  were  later  published  in  the  North 
American,  following  the  acceptance  of  "  Thanatopsis."  He 
became  a  lawyer  not  through  any  love  of  the  profession  but 
because  it  seemed  a  reasonable  way  to  earn  a  living  in  a  period 
when  one  could  not  hope  for  support  from  his  pen.  He 
practiced  for  nine  years,  never  with  any  real  enthusiasm, 
describing  himself  in  the  midst  of  these  years  as 

forced  to  drudge  for  the  dregs  of  men, 
And  scrawl  strange  words  with  the  barbarous  pen, 
And  mingle  among  the  jostling  crowd, 
Where  the  sons  of  strife  are  subtle  and  loud. 

His  discontent  was  increased  by  the  applause  which  came 
with  his  magazine  poems  and  by  the  compliment  of  an 
invitation  to  deliver  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  poem  at  Harvard 
in  1821.  Finally,  in  1825,  he  went  down  to  New  York  in  the 
hope  of  making  a  success  of  a  new  periodical  there.  In  spite  of 
his  associate  editorship  The  New  York  Review  and  Athen&um 
Magazine  was  as  shortlived  as  scores  of  others.  It  was  a  bad 
time  in  America  for  such  a  venture.  The  country  was  flooded 
with  English  publications  and  American  pirated  editions  of 
English  works.  The  public  was  not  educated  to  the  idea  of 
magazines,  nor  the  publishers  to  the  methods  of  financing 
them.  They  were  unattractive*  in  form  and  as  heavy  in  contents 
as  the  labored  name  of  Bryant's  -jll-fated  experiment.  After 
trys  collapse  he  returned  for  a  short  time  to  the  practice  of 
law,  but  in  1826  he  accepted  the  assistant  editorship  of  the 
•New  YorJ^  Evening,-P£st,  three  years  later  became  editor,  antf 
continued  with  it  until  his  death  in  1878.  He  was  the  first 
nineteenth-century  man  of  letters  tojmter  the  field  of  American 
journalism,  and'  Tin  [il^y^^a  highly  distinguished  part  IIL 
its  :  history^ 

WhenBryant  became  editor  in  chief  of  the  New  York 
Evening  Post  he  was  thirty-five  years  old.  He  had  written 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  161 

about  one  third  of  the  poetry  saved  in  the  collected  editions 
and  about  one  half  of  the  better-known  poems  on  which  his 
reputation  rests.  This  much  is  worth  considering  by  itself, 
because  it  has  a  character  of  its  own  and  is  quite  different 
from  the  output  of  the  latter  fifty  years.  In  the  first  place  it 
was  consciously  religious  in  tone.  Bryant  came  from  Puritan 
ancestry.  He  was  brought  up  to  believe  in  a  stern  God  who 
had  doomed  all  mankind  to  eternal  destruction  and  who  ruled 
them  relentlessly,  sometimes  in  sorrow  but  more  often  in  anger. 
To  the  Puritans  life  on  earth  was  a  prelude  to  eternity,  and 
eternity  was  to  be  spent  possibly  in  bliss,  but  probably  in 
torment.  They  were  truly  a  people  "whose  minds  had  derived 
a  peculiar  character  from  the  daily  contemplation  of  superior 
beings  and  eternal  interests."  His  mind  and  imagination  were 
therefore  wide  open  to  the  influence  of  Kirke  White  and  the 
other  "Graveyard  Poets."  " Thanatopsis,"  or  "a  glimpse  of 
death,"  was  composed  under  the  eye  of  God  as  Bryant  knew 
him.  In  setting  down  "  When  thoughts  of  the  last  bitter  hour 
come  like  a  blight  over  thy  spirit,"  he  was  not  indulging  in 
any  far-fetched  fancy ;  he  was  alluding  to  what  the  minister 
brought  home  to  him  in  two  sermons  every  Sunday  and  to 
the  unfailing  subject  of  discussion  at  the  mid-week  prayer 
meeting.  And  when  he  wrote  of  approaching  the  grave  "  sus 
tained  and  soothed  by  an  unfaltering  trust,"  he  was  writing 
of  a  trust  which  needed  to  be  especially  strong  to  face  the 
thought  of  possible  damnation. 

In  a  broad  sense  all  true  poetry  is  religious,  for  it  deals 
with  truths  that  lie  beneath  life  and  leads  to  higher  thinking 
and  better  living,  but  the  religion  of  the  youthful  Bryant  was 
specialized  to  a  single  creed.  The  point  is  strikingly  illustrated 
by  the  "  Hymn  to  Death."  The  first  four  fifths  of  this  poem 
were  written  when  he  was  twenty-five  years  old,  a  meditation 
based  on  Puritan  theology.  All  men  die,  he  said,  even  those 
one  loves ;  but  death  is  really  God's  instrument  to  punish  the 


162       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

wicked.    Oppressors,    idolaters,    atheists,    perjurers,    revelers, 
slanderers,  the  sons  of  violence  and  fraud  are  struck  down. 

Thus,  from  the  first  of  time,  hast  thou  been  found 
On  virtue's  side ;  the  wicked,  but  for  thee, 
Had  been  too  strong  for  the  good ;  the  great  of  earth 
Had  crushed  the  weak  for  ever. 

Then,  with  the  poem  left  at  this  stage,  Bryant's  father  died 
while  still  in  the  height  of  his  powers  and  as  the  result  of 
exposure  in  meeting  his  duties  as  a  country  doctor.  In  the 
face  of  this  calamity  the  young  poet's  verses  seemed  to  him 
a  bitter  mockery : 

Shuddering  I  look 

On  what  is  written,  yet  I  blot  not  out 
The  desultory  numbers ;  let  them  stand, 
The  record  of  an  idle  revery. 

This  leads  to  the  second  characteristic  of  Bryant's  earlier 
verse  —  more  often  than  not  it  was  self-conscious  and  self- 
applied.  He  wrote  to  "The  Yellow  Violet"  and  devoted  five 
stanzas  to  it,  but  ended  with  three  more  of  self-analysis.  The 
stanzas  "  To  a  Waterfowl "  have  a  general  and  beautiful  appli 
cation,  but  they  were  pointed  in  his  mind  by  the  thought  that 
he  needed  aid  to  "  lead  my  steps  aright "  in  the  choice  of  his 
life's  vocation.  Even  the  modest  autumn  flower,  the  M  Fringed 
Gentian,"  reminded  him  of  the  autumn  of  his  own  life  and  the 
hope  that  he  might  do  as  the  flower,  and  look  to  heaven  when 
the  hour  of  death  drew  near.  This  was  the  voice  of  youth 
which  takes  life  as  a  personal  matter  and  assumes,  out  of 
sheer  inexperience,  that  to  his  concrete  wants  "  the  converging 
objects  of  the  universe  perpetually  flow."  Maturity  makes  the 
wise  man  lift  his  eyes  unto  the  hills  whence  cometh  his  help, 
instead  of  continually  brooding  on  his  own  hopes  and  fears. 
/  But  thisJiabit.  of  self -examination  was  natural  not  only  to  the 
young  Puritan,  vaguely  dissatisfied  with  the  barren  existence 
of  a  country  lawyer ;  it  was  closely  akin  to  the  sentimentalism 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  163 

of  the  age  (see  pp.  125  and  148).  Bryant  was  like  many  of* 
the  late  eighteenth-century  poets,  dramatists,  and  novelists  in 
his  belief  that  quickness  of  emotion  was  admirable  in  itself 
and  that  the  tenderer  emotions  were  marks  of  refinement. 
After  he  had  settled  in  the  city  he  looked  back  with  a  glance 
of  approval  to  the  days  when  the  springs  of  feeling  were  filled 
to  the  brim. 

I  cannot  forget  with  what  fervid  devotion 

I  worshipped  the  visions  of  verse  and  of  fame ; 
Each  gaze  at  the  glories  of  earth,  sky,  and  ocean, 

To  my  kindled  emotions  was  wind  over  flame. 

And  deep  were  my  musings  in  life's  early  blossom, 
Mid  the  twilight  of  mountain-groves  wandering  long ; 

How  thrilled  my  young  veins,  and  how  throbbed  my  full  bosom, 
When  o'er  me  descended  the  spirit  of  song. 

There  is  a  slight  touch  of  self-commendation  in  his  continual 
references  to  his  thrills  and  awes  and  adorations  and  in  the 
"  pleasurable  melancholy,"  as  Poe  called  it,  with  which  he 
enjoyed  life,  but  we  shall  see  that  life  in  the  city  changed 
this  for  something  more  positive. 

Before  turning  away  from  this  period,  however,  the  student 
should  take  heed  of  its  poetic  form.  The  remarkable  thing 
about  "  Thanatopsis  "  was  not  that  Bryant  should  have  enter 
tained  the  thoughts  it  contains  or  that  he  should  have  aspired 
to  write  them,  but  that  he  expressed  them  in  verses  that  were 
so  beautiful  and  so  different  from  anything  ever  written  before 
in  America.  It  was  their  form  at  which  Dana  exclaimed  in 
his  much-quoted  remark  to  Phillips  in  the  North  American 
Review  office.  When  Bryant  was  a  boy  our  native  writers 
were,  all  but  Freneau,  in  the  habit  of  imitating  the  English 
poets  and  essayists  who  had  set  the  style  a  full  hundred  years 
before.  The  young  American  who  felt  a  drawing  to  literature 
saturated  himself  in  the  writings  of  Addison,  Pope,  Goldsmith, 
Johnson,  and  their  followers  (see  pp.  70,  93,  116,  etc.).  The 


164       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

verses  of  these  men  were  neat,  clean-cut,  and  orderly,  and  filed 
down  their  pages  like  regiments  of  soldiers  on  dress  parade. 
They  went  along  in  rimed  pairs,  with  a  place  to  draw  breath 
near  the  middle  of  each  line,  a  slight  pause  at  the  end  of  the 
first,  and  a  full  stop  at  the  end  of  the  second.  As  a  fashion, 
to  be  sure,  it  was  no  more  natural  than  the  high,  powdered 
headdresses  and  hoop  skirts  which  prevailed  with  the  ladies 
at  the  same  time,  but  it  was  a  courtly  literary  convention,  and 
it  could  be  acquired  by  any  writer  who  was  patient  and  pains 
taking.  In  1785  the  best  that  John  Trumbull  could  hope  for 
America  was  that  it  might  produce  copyists  of  these  English 
men,  and  he  expressed  his  hope  in  the  usual  set  style  —  like 
a  boy  scout  in  uniform  dreaming  of  the  day  when  he  and  his 
fellows  may  develop  into  Leonard  Woodses  and  Pershings 
(see  p.  70).  And  Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  writing  in  one  of 
the  years  when  "  Thanatopsis "  was  lying  unpublished  in 
Dr.  Bryant's  desk,  put  his  desire  into  an  even  more  com 
plex  measure,  a  modification  of  the  Spenserian  stanza  (see 
p.  136). 

Bryant,  it  will  be  remembered,  made  his  first  poetic  flights  in 
the  style  of  Pope,  and  he  did  well  enough  to  be  apparently  on 
the  highroad  of  old-fashioned  imitation.  Then  suddenly,  while 
still  a  boy,  he  lifted  himself  out  of  the  rut  of  rime  and  began 
writing  a  free,  fluent  "blank  verse."  It  is  the  same  five-stressed 
measure  which  Pope  used,  —  the  measure  of  Shakespeare  too, 
"  If  music  be  the  food  of  love,  play  on"  —  but  it  is  without 
rime,  and  the  pauses  come  where  the  sense  demands  instead 
of  where  the  versification  dictates.  In  the  passages  just  cited 
from  Trumbull  and  Drake  there  is  only  one  line  where  the 
sense  runs  on  without  a  slight  pause,  —  the  sense  is  forced  to 
conform  to  the  rhythm;  but  in  "Thanatopsis,"  although  the 
rhythm  is  quite  regular,  the  pauses  occur  at  all  sorts  of  places, 
and  seldom  at  the  line-ends.  As  Bryant  set  down  the  first 
seven  and  four-fifth  lines,  for  example,  they  read : 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  165 

.    .          To  him  who  in  the  love  of  Nature  holds 

Communion  with  her  visible  forms,  she  speaks 
A  various  language ;  for  his  gayer  hours 
She  has  a  voice  of  gladness,  and  a  smile 
And  eloquence  of  beauty,  and  she  glides 
Into  his  darker  musings,  with  a  mild 
And  healing  sympathy,  that  steals  away 
Their  sharpness,  ere  he  is  aware ; 

but  broken  into  groups,  as  one  would  read  them,  they  fall : 

To  him  who  in  the  love  of  Nature 
Holds  communion  with  her  visible  forms, 
She  speaks  a  various  language ; 
For  his  gayer  hours  she  has  a  voice  of  gladness, 
And  a  smile  and  eloquence  of  beauty, 
And  she  glides  into  his  darker  musings, 
With  a  mild  and  healing  sympathy, 
That  steals  away  their  sharpness,  ere  he  is  aware. 

This  was  nothing  new  in  poetry.  Shakespeare  had  written 
his  plays  almost  entirely  in  this  way,  and  Milton  all  of  "  Para 
dise  Lost"  and  " Paradise  Regained,"  and  the  later  English 
poets,  most  notably  Wordsworth,  had  just  returned  to  it ;  but 
in  America  it  was  as  unfamiliar  as  the  "free  verse"  which  is 
puzzling  a  good  many  readers  to-day  partly  because  it  is  printed 
in  units  of  meaning  instead  of  units  of  measure.  No  wonder 
that  Dana  was  surprised,  "on  this  side  the  Atlantic." 

When  Bryant  went  down  into  the  crowded  activity  of  New 
York  City  the  general  tone  of  his  work  began  to  change. 
The  things  that  he  was  doing  interested  him  as  the  practice 
of  law  never  had  done.  The  editorship  of  the  Evening 
Post .  made  him  not  merely  a  news  vender  but  a  molder  of 
public  thought,  and  .his  entrance  into  the  world  of  opinion 
gave  him  more  of  an  interest  in  life  itself  and  less  in  his 
own  emotions.  Very  soon  he  wrote  the  "  Hymn  of  the  City" 
to  record  his  discovery  that  God  lived  in  the  town  as  well  as 


1 66       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

in  the  country  and  that  he  was  the  God   of  life  quite  as 
much  as  the  God  of  death. 

Thy  Spirit  is  around, 
Quickening  the  restless  mass  that  sweeps  along ; 

And  this  eternal  sound  — 
Voices  and  footfalls  of  the  numberless  throng  — 

Like  the  resounding  sea, 
Or  like  the  rainy  tempest,  speaks  of  Thee. 

Then  in  "The  Battle  Field"  (1837)  and  "The  Antiquity  of 
Freedom"  (1842)  he  moved  on  to  what  was  a  new  thought  in 
his  verse.  He  was  still  interested  in  beauty,  whether  it  were 
the  beauty  of  nature  or  the  beauty  of  holiness ;  but  as  a  man 
who  had  plunged  into  the  thick  of  things  he  became  for  the 
first  time  wide-awake  to  the  idea  that  as  the  world  grows  older 
it  grows  wiser  and  that  the  well-rounded  life  cannot  be  content 
simply  to  contemplate  the  beauties  of  June,  for  it  must  also 
have  some  part  in  the  struggle  for  justice.  He  had  grown  into 
nothing  less  than  a  new  idea  of  God.  As  a  young  Puritan  he 
had  felt  Him  to  be  a  power  outside,  who  managed  things.  He 
had  been  content  to  pray,  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
in  heaven,"  and  then  he  had  turned  his  back  on  earth  and 
meditated  about  heaven.  But  now  he  aspired  to  do  with  heaven 
what  Addison  had  attempted  to  do  with  "  philosophy,"  and 
bring  it  down  from  the  clouds  into  the  hearts  of  men.  When 
he  wrote,  in  "The  Battle  Field,"  "Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall 
rise  again,"  he  meant,  as  the  rest  of  the  poem  shows,  not  the 
old  truth  of  centuries  but  the  unfamiliar  truth  which  the  new 
age  must  set  on  its  throne. 

There  is  perhaps  no  more  striking  illustration  of  the  adop 
tion  of  so-called  new  truth  than  in  the  world's  attitude  toward 
the  holding  of  property  in  human  life.  Up  to  the  time  of 
Bryant's  birth  slaveholding  had  been  practiced  in  all  the  United 
States,  by  the  Puritans  of  New  England  as  well  as  by  the  Cava 
liers  of  the  South.  During  the  colonial  days  in  both  regions 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  167 

the  Bible  had  been  accepted  as  final  authority.  What  it  coun 
seled  and  what  it  did  not  prohibit  was  right,  and  what  it 
condemned  was  wrong ;  and,  judged  on  these  grounds,  slavery 
was  apparently  sanctioned  in  the  Bible.  In  spite  of  this,  many 
leaders,  both  North  and  South,  protested  against  the  practice 
before  1 800.  As  time  went  on,  largely  on  account  of  the  climate 
and  the  nature  of  the  industries,  slavery  waned  in  the  North  and 
thrived  in  the  South.  Then  in  New  England  the  great  agita 
tion  arose ;  but  still,  in  Massachusetts  as  well  as  in  Virginia, 
the  men  whose  bank  accounts  were  involved  defended  human 
bondage  on  Scriptural  grounds,  protesting  violently  against 

creeds  that  dare  to  teach 
What  Christ  and  Paul  refrained  to  preach. 

Yet  in  the  end  the  principle  for  which  the  Revolution  was 
fought  was  reaffirmed  in  behalf  of  the  slaves  who  were  serving 
the  sons  of  the  Revolution. 

Bryant  became  painfully  conscious  of  the  many  issues  to  be 
fought  out  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  in  "  The  Antiquity  of 
Freedom  "  he  wrote  of  the  eternal  vigilance  and  the  eternal 
conflict  needed  to  maintain  it. 

Oh !  not  yet 

May'st  thou  unbrace  thy  corslet,  nor  lay  by 
Thy  sword ;  nor  yet,  O  Freedom  !  close  thy  lids 
In  slumber ;  for  thine  enemy  never  sleeps, 
And  thou  must  watch  and  combat  till  the  day 
Of  the  new  earth  and  heaven. 

That  combat  is  still  on ;  the  right  of  the  subject  —  including 
woman — to  a  voice  in  the  government,  the  right  of  the  laborer 
to  a  fair  return  on  his  work,  and  the  right  of  the  smaller  nation 
to  undisturbed  independence  are  among  the  uppermost  prob 
lems  that  occupy  the  mind  of  the  world  to-day. 

Like  many  of  his  thoughtful  countrymen  Bryant  founded  his 
loyalty  to  America  on  the  hope  that  in  this  new  land  the  seed 


r68        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  Hew  truth  would  fall  on  fertile  soil.  '  In  "Earth,"  composed 
when  he  was  in  Italy,  he  wrote : 

O  thou, 

Who  sittest  far  beyond  the  Atlantic  deep, 
Among  the  sources  of  thy  glorious  streams, 
My  native  Land  of  Groves !  a  newer  page 
In  the  great  record  of  the  world  is  thine ; 
Shall  it  be  fairer  ?    Fear,  and  friendly  Hope, 
And  Envy,  watch  the  issue,  while  the  lines 
.  f  .  By  which  thou  shalt  be  judged,  are  written  down. 

The  number  and  bulk  of  his  poems  dedicated  to  America 
are  not  so  great  as  those  by  Freneau  or  Whittier  and  Lowell 
or  Timrod  and  Lanier,  but  his  smaller  group  are  as  distin 
guished  and  as  representative  as  an  equal  number  by  any  of 
the  others  except,  possibly,  Lowell.  In  "  O  Mother  of  a 
Mighty  Race  "  he  alluded  again  to  the  envy  and  unfriendli 
ness  of  the  older  nations^  which  disturbed  him  as  it  did  Irving 
and  Cooper.  In  the  face  of  it  he  tried,  with  less  success  than 
Irving,  to  keep  his  own  temper,  taking  comfort  in  the  thought 
that  the  downtrodden  and  oppressed  of  Europe  could  find 
shelter  here  and  a  chance  to  live.  As  a  journalist  he  was  a 
strong  champion  of  Abraham  Lincoln  long  before  the  conserv 
ative  East  had  given  him  unreserved  support ;  and  when  the 
Civil  War  came  on  he  sounded  "Our  Country's  Call"  and 
encouraged  all  within  sound  of  his  voice  in  "the  grim  resolve 
to  guard  it  well."  During  the  war  he  wrote  from  time  to  time 
verses  that  were  full  of  devotion  to  the  right  and  quite  free 
>  from  the  note  of  hate  that  poisons  most  war  poetry ;  and  at 
V  the  end  he  mourned  the  death  of  Lincoln  no  less  fervently 

than  he  rejoiced  at  "  The  Death  of  Slavery." 

-y          Aside  from  these  poems  and  others  of  their  kind,  which 

y       make  the  connection  between  Bryant  the  editor  and  Bryant  the 

Yr^poet,  he  continued  to  write  on  his  old  themes  —  ijature.  and . 

'    ^the  '•  individual  life.    There  was  no  complete  reversal  of  atti- 

'  tude ;"  some  of  the  later  poems  were  reminders  of  some  of  the 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  169 

earlier  ones.  Yet  a  real  change  came  after  he  had  mixed  with 
the  world.  At  first  he  was  inclined  to  lament  the  loss  of  the 
old  life,  seeming  to  forget  how  irksome  it  had  been  when  he 
was  in  the  midst  of  it.  In  such  personal  verses  as  "  I  cannot 
forget  with  what  fervid  devotion"  and  "I  broke  the  spell  that 
held  me  long"  he  was  indulging  in  the  luxury  of  mild  self- 
pity.  "  In  my  younger  days  I  had  lots  of  time,  but  no  money 
and  few  friends.  Now  I  have  friends  and  an  income,  but  alas, 
I  have  no  time."  This  was  but  a  temporary  mood,  however. 
It  is  quite  clear  from  his  later  poems  that  he  enjoyed  life  more 
in  town  than  in  country.  This  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  nature 
did  not  continue  to  suggest  mournful  thoughts.  "The  Planting 
of  the  Apple  Tree"  is  serenely  recorded  in  "quaint  old  rhymes." 
Instead  of  saying,  as  in  his  earlier  manner :  "  We  plant  this 
apple  tree,  but  we  plant  it  only  for  a  few  short  years.  Then  it 
will  die,  like  all  mankind.  Perhaps  I  may  be  buried  beneath 
its  shade,"  he  said :  "  Come,  let  us  plant  it.  It  will  blossom 
and  bear  fruit  which  will  be  eaten  in  cottage  and  palace,  here 
and  abroad.  And  when  it  is  old,  perhaps  its  aged  branches  will 
throw  thin  shadows  on  a  better  world  than  this  is  now.  Who 
knows  ?  "  The  stanzas  on  "Robert  of  Lincoln"  are  not  merely 
free  from  sadness ;  they  are  positively  jolly. 

In  the  last  years  of  his  long  career  —  he  lived  to  be  eighty- 
four —  he  seems  at  first  glance  to  have  gone  back  to  his  youth 
ful  sadness ;  but  this  is  not  really  the  case,  for  thoughts  which 
are  premature  or  affected  in  youth  are  natural  to  old  age.  At 
eighty-two,  in  "  A  Lifetime"  and  "The  Flood  of  Years"  he 
actually  looked  back  over  many  bereavements  and  forward  but 
a  very  short  way  to  the  life  after  death.  The  two  poems  taken 
together  are  an  old  man's  farewell  to  the  world.  Like  the  poem 
with  which  he  won  his  first  fame,  they  present  another  glimpse 
of  death,  but  this  time  it  is  a  fair  prospect  of 

A  present  in  whose  reign  no  grief  shall  gnaw 
The  Heart,  and  never  shall  a  tender  tie 
Be  broken. 


1 70       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

When  Bryant  came  to  his  seventieth  birthday  there  was  a 
notable  celebration  at  the  Century  Club  in  New  York  City.  At 
that  time  three  poems  were  read  by  three  of  his  fellow-poets — 
Holmes,  Lowell,  and  Whittier.  What  they  said  throws  a  great 
deal  of  light  on  Bryant's  part  in  American  life  and  literature. 
Holmes  sang  his  praises  as  a  poet  of  nature,  a  journalist  of  high 
ideals,  a  writer  of  solemn  and  majestic  verse  whose  later  works 
fulfilled  the  promise  of  his  first  great  poem.  Lowell  went  a 
step  farther  in  paying  his  tribute  to  Bryant  as  a  poet  of  faith 
and  freedom  and  as  a  citizen  who  gave  life  and  courage  to  the 
nation  during  the  crisis  of  the  Civil  War.  In  this  respect  the 
author  of  u  The  Battle  Field  "  was  quite  as  much  of  a  pioneer 
as  in  his  poems  about  birds  and  flowers.  He  was  far  ahead  of 
most  of  his  countrymen  in  his  feeling  for  America  as  a  nation 
among  nations  —  not  merely  in  the  slightly  indignant  mood  of 
"  O  Mother  of  a  Mighty  Race,"  but  better  in  his  feeling  that 
new  occasions  bring  new  duties.  Finally,  Whittier  revered 
Bryant  as  a  man.  With  all  admiration  for  his  art, 

His  life  is  now  his  noblest  strain, 
His  manhood  better  than  his  verse  I 

In  his  later  years  Bryant  was  one  of  the  best  citizens  of  New 
York.  His  striking  presence  on  the  streets,  with  his  white  hair 
and  beard  and  his  fine  vigor,  made  poetry  real  to  the  crowds  who 
were  inclined  to  think  of  it  as  something  impersonal  that  existed 
only  in  books.  On  account  of  his  powers  as  a  public  speaker 
and  his  place  in  literature  he  was  often  called  on  to  deliver 
memorial  addresses,  and  was  affectionately  named  "the  old  man 
eloquent."  His  orations  on  Cooper  and  Irving  were  among  the 
first  of  these.  His  last  was  in  1878,  at  the  unveiling  of  a  statue 
to  the  Italian  patriot  Mazzini.  As  he  was  returning  into  his  home 
he  fell,  receiving  injuries  from  which  he  died  shortly  after.  It 
was  fitting  that  his  last  words  should  have  been  in  praise  of  a 
champion  of  freedom  and  that  he  should  have  died  with  the 
echoes  of  his  countrymen's  applause  still  ringing  in  his  ears. 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  17 1 

BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT.  The  Life  and  Works  of.  Parke  Godwin, 
editor.  6  vols.  Vols.  I  and  II,  Biography,  1883;  Vols.  Ill  and  IV, 
Poetical  Works,  1883  ;  Vols.  V  and  VI,  Prose  Writings,  1884-1889. 
Best  single- volume  edition  is  The  Household,  1909,  and  The  Roslyn, 
1910.  His  poems  appeared  originally  as  follows:  The  Embargo, 
1808;  Poems,  1821,  1832,  1834,  1836,  1839,  1840;  The  Fountain 
and  Other  Poems,  1842  ;  The  White- Footed  Deer  and  Other  Poems, 
1844;  Poems,  1847,  1848,  1849,  1850,  1854,  1855,  1856,  1857.  A 
Forest  Hymn  [  1 860] ;  In  the  Woods,  1 863  ;  Thirty  Poems,  1 864 ; 
Hymns  [1864];  Voices  of  Nature,  1865;  The  Song  of  the  Sower, 
1871;  The  Story  of  the  Fountain,  1872;  The  Little  People  of  the 
Snow,  1873 ;  Among  the  Trees  [1874];  The  Flood  of  Years,  1878; 
Unpublished  Poems  of  Bryant  and  Thoreau,  1907. 

Bibliography 

STURGES,  H.  C.  Prefixed  to  the  Roslyn  edition  of  Bryant  and  also 
published  separately.  Also  Cambridge  History  of  American 
Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  517-521. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  Parke  Godwin.  Vols.  I  and  II  of  the  Life  and 
Works  in  6  vols. 

BIGELOW,  J.   William  Cullen  Bryant.   1890. 

BRADLEY,  W.  A.  William  Cullen  Bryant  (E.M.L.  Series).   1905. 

COLLINS,  CHURTON.   Poets  and  Poetry  of  America. 

CURTIS,  G.  W.  The  Life,  Character,  and  Writings  of  William  Cullen 

Bryant.   1879. 
LEONARD,  W.  E.   Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

Bk.  II,  in  chap.  v. 
PALMER,  G.  H.   Atlas  Essays. 
POE,  E.  A.   William  Cullen  Bryant.    Complete  Works.    Vol.  VIII. 

1902. 

STEDMAN,  E.  C.   Genius  and  Other  Essays.   1911. 
STEDMAN,  E.  C.   Poets  of  America.   1885. 
TAYLOR,  B.    Critical  Essays  and  Literary  Notes.   1880. 
VAN  DOREN,  CARL.  Growth  of  Thanatopsis.  Nation,  Vol.  CI,  p.  432. 
WILKINSON,  W.  C.   A  Free  Lance  in  the  Field  of  Life  and  Letters. 

1874. 

WILSON,  J.  G.   Bryant  and  his  Friends.   1886. 
WOODBERRY,  G.  E.    America  in  Literature.   1903. 


1 72       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  early  poems  of  Bryant  with  reference  to  the  prevalence 
of  death  in  them  and  particularly  to  the  unexpected  appearance  of 
this  idea. 

Read  them  again  with  reference  to  the  sentimentalism  in  them. 

Read  "  A  Forest  Hymn  "  and  the  "  Hymn  to  Death  "  for  a  com 
parison  of  the  blank  verse  with  that  in  "  Thanatopsis." 

Read  "The  Battle  Field  "  and  Wordsworth's  sonnet  "Written  above 
Westminster  Abbey  "  for  the  different  but  sympathetic  developments 
of  the  same  idea. 

Compare  Bryant's  "Robert  of  Lincoln"  and  "The  Planting  of 
the  Apple  Tree"  with  Freneau's  "The  Wild  Honeysuckle"  and 
"  To  a  Caty-did." 

Read  Bryant's  "  Song  of  the  Sower,"  Lanier's  "  Corn,"  and  Tim- 
rod's  "  The  Cotton  Boll  "  for  evident  points  of  likeness  and  difference. 

Note  in  detail  the  relation  between  Bryant's  journalistic  career  and 
the  turn  of  his  mind  in  the  poetry  of  the  journalistic  period. 

Bryant  wrote  no  journalistic  poetry  in  the  sense  in  which  Freneau 
did,  or  Whittier,  or  Lowell.  For  an  explanation  see  his  verses  on 
"  The  Poet." 


;  .    ;  CHAPTER  XII  :      .   .   . 

EDGAR  ALLAN  POE 

Edgar  Allan  Poe  (1809-1849).  is  one  of  the  two  American 
poets  regarded  .with  greatest  respect  by  authors  and  critics  in 
England  and  on  the  Continent.  To  Whitman  respect  is  paid 
because  he  is  so  essentially  American  in  his  subject  matter  and 
point  of  viewV'itJs  yielded  to  Poe  because  his  subject  matter 
is  so  universal  —  located  out  of  space  and  out  of  time  — -  and  be^ 
cause  he  was  such  a  master  craftsman  in-  his  art.  Whitman  was 
intensely  national  and  local,  looking  on  life,  however  broadly  he 
may  have  seen  it,  always  from  his  American  vantage  point, 
Poe  was  utterly  detached  in  his  creative  writing,  deriving  his 
maturer  tales  and  poems  neither  from  past  nor  present,  neither 
from  books  .nor  life,  but  evolving  them  out  of  his  perfervid 
^imagination  -?and  casting  the  best  of  them  into  incomparable 
form.  /Pbe  is  therefore  sometimes  said  to  have  been  in  no  way 
related:  to  the  course  of  American  literature  ;  but  this  judgment 
mistakenly  overlooks  his  unhappily  varied  career  as  a  magazine 
contributor  and  editor.  He  has  a  larger  place  in  the  history  of 
periodicals  than  any  other  American  man  of  letters.  His  con 
nection  with  at  least  four  is  the  most  distinguished  fact  that-<:an 
now  be  adduced  in  their  favor;  and  his  frustrated  ambition- to 
found  and  conduct  a  monthly  in  "the  cause  of  a  Pure  Taste" 
was  a  dream  for  a  thing  which  his  country  sorely  needed,  v. 

Poe  was  born  in  Boston,  January  19,  1809.  His  parents  were 
actors  — Tiis  father  a  somewhat  colorless  professionalized  ama 
teur,  his  mother  brought  up  as  the  daughter  of  an  actress  and 
moderately  successful  in  light  and  charming  roles.  By  i8n 
the  future  poet,  a  brother  two  years  older,  and  a  sister  a  year 
younger  ,:were  orphans,  Each  was  adopted  into  a.  different 

173 


174       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

home  —  Edgar  into  that  of  Mr.  John  Allan,  a  well-to-do  Rich 
mond  merchant,  to  whom  he  owed,  more  permanently  than  any 
other  gift,  his  middle  name.  The  boy  was  given  the  generous 
attention  of  an  only  child.  From  1815  to  1820,  while  his  foster 
father's  business  held  him  in  residence  across  the  Atlantic, 
he  was  in  English  schools.  Then  for  five  years  he  was  in  a 
Richmond  academy,  and  during  1825  apparently  studied  under 
private  tutors.  Up  to  the  time  of  his  admission  to  the  Uni 
versity  of  Virginia  he  was  handsome,  charming,  active-minded, 
and  perhaps  somewhat  "  spoiled."  Although  only  seventeen  he 
had  passed  through  a  love  affair  culminating  in  an  engagement, 
which  was  very  naturally  broken  by  the  father  of  the  other 
contracting  party. 

With  his  year  at  the  university  Poe  entered  on  the  unfortu 
nate  succession  of  eccentricities  that  blighted  all  the  rest  of 
his  tumultuous  career  and  hastened  him  to  an  early  and  tragic 
death.  He  did  everything  intensely,  though  he  was  methodical 
and  industrious  ;  but  his  method  was  not  equal  to  his  intensity, 
and  from  time  to  time,  with  increasing  frequency,  unreasoned 
or  foolish  or  mad  impulses  carried  him  off  his  balance  and  into 
all  sorts  of  trouble.  Thus,  at  the  university  he  stood  well  in 
his  classes,  but  he  drank  to  excess  (and  he  was  so  constituted 
that  a  very  little  was  too  much)  and  he  played  cards  reck 
lessly  and  very  badly,  so  that  at  the  year's  end  his  "  debts  of 
honor  "  amounted  to  over  two  thousand  dollars.  Thus  again, 
after  a  creditable  year  and  a  half  in  the  army  he  had  earned 
the  office  of  sergeant  major  and  had  secured  honorable  discharge 
and  admission  to  West  Point,  but  in  this  coveted  academy  he 
neglected  his  duties  and  courted  the  dismissal  which  came  to 
him  within  six  months.  Thus  in  one  editorial  position  after 
another  he  met  his  obligations  well  and  brilliantly  until  he  came 
to  the  inevitable  breaking  point  with  his  less  talented  em 
ployers.  And  thus,  finally,  in  the  succession  of  love  affairs 
which  preceded  and  followed  his  married  life  the  violence  of 
his  feelings  made  him  irresponsible  and  intolerable.  Again 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  175 

and  again  just  at  the  times  when  he  most  needed  full  control 
of  himself  he  became  intoxicated  ;  yet  he  was  not  an  habitual 
drinker,  and  in  the  long  intervals  between  his  lapses  he 
doubtless  deserved  from  many  another  the  famous  testimony 
of  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis : 

With  the  highest  admiration  for  his  genius,  and  a  willingness  to  let  it 
atone  for  more  than  ordinary  irregularity,  we  were  led  by  common 
report  to  expect  a  very  capricious  attention  to  his  duties,  and  occa 
sionally  a  scene  of  violence  and  difficulty.  Time  went  on,  however, 
and  he  was  invariably  punctual  and  industrious.  With  his  pale,  beau 
tiful  and  intellectual  face,  as  a  reminder  of  what  genius  was  in  him,  it 
was  impossible,  of  course,  not  to  treat  him  with  deferential  courtesy, 
and,  to  our  occasional  request  that  he  would  not  probe  too  deep  in  a 
criticism,  or  that  he  would  erase  a  passage  colored  too  highly  with 
his  resentments  against  society  and  mankind,  he  readily  and  cour 
teously  assented  —  far  more  yielding  than  most  men,  we  thought,  on 
points  so  excusably  sensitive. 

Willis,  however,  was  more  considerate  and  far  more  intelli 
gent  than  others,  giving  Poe  no  new  ground  for  the  "  resent 
ments  against  society  and  mankind  "  which  he  cherished  against 
all  too  many  with  whom  he  had  differed.  On  the  whole  he  was 
a  victim  not  of  friends  or  foes  or  "  circumstances  over  which 
he  had  no  control "  but  of  the  erratic  temperament  with  which 
fate  had  endowed  him.  He  was  like  Byron  and  Shelley  in  his 
youthful  enjoyment  of  privilege  and  good  fortune,  in  his  violent 
rejection  of  conventional  ease  and  comfort,  in  his  unhappy  life 
and  his  early  death.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  that  any  de 
visable  set  of  conditions  would  in  the  end  have  served  Poe  better. 
He  was  one  of  the  very  few  who  have  been  truly  burdened  with 
"the  eccentricities  of  genius." 

The  first  milestone  in  his  literary  career  was  in  1827. 
Mr.  Allan's  refusal  to  honor  his  gambling  debts  resulted  in 
withdrawal  from  the  university  and  the  first  clear-cut  break  with 
his  patron.  Shortly  after  appeared  "  Tamerlane  and  Other 
Poems.  By  a  Bostonian.  Boston  :  Calvin  F.  S.  Thomas  .  .  . 


A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Printer,  1827,  pp.  40."  It  was  a  little  book  in  which  the 
passion  and  the  pathos  of  his  whole  life  were  foreshadowed 
in  the  early  couplet, 

Know  thou  the  secret  of  a  spirit 

Bowed  from  its  wild  pride  into  shame. 

"Tamerlane,"  the  title  poem,  was  a  Byronic  effusion  without 
either  structure  or  a  rational  theme,  but  with  a  kind  of  fire 
glowing  through  in  occasional  gleams  of  poetry  and  flashes 
of  power.  It  was  the  sort  of  thing  that  had  already  been  done 
by  the  youthful  Drake  in  "Leon"  and  that  Timrod  was  to 
attempt  in  "A  Vision  of  Poesy,"  but  though  all  three  were 
boyishly  imitative,  Poe's  was  the  most  genuine  as  a  piece  of 
self -revelation.  This  volume  was  followed  by  "  Al  Aaraaf, 
Tamerlane,  and  Minor  Poems"  in  1829,  shortly  before  his 
admission  to  West  Point,  and  by  the  "Poems"  of  1831  just 
after  his  dismissal,  each  largely  inclusive  of  what  had  appeared 
before,  with  omissions,  changes,  and  some  new  poems  but  no 
distinctively  new  promise. 

Then  for  a  while  he  settled  in  Richmond,  receiving  an  allow 
ance  from  Mr.  Allan,  with  whom  he  had  experienced  two 
estrangements  and  two  reconciliations.  In  1832  five  of  his 
prose  tales  were  printed  in  the  Philadelphia  Saturday  Courier. 
The  fruits  of  his  unwearying  devotion  to  authorship  began  to 
mature  in  1833,  when  he  was  awarded  a  hundred-dollar  prize 
for  a  short  story  in  the  Baltimore  Saturday  Visiter,  and  when 
the  first  prize  for  a  poem  in  the  same  competition  was  withheld 
from  him  only  because  of  his  success  with  the  "MS.  Found  in 
a  Bottle."  From  then  on  his  literary  activities  were  interwoven 
with  the  development  of  American  journalism.  His  poems, 
tales,  and  critical  articles  appeared  in  no  less  than  forty-seven 
American  periodicals,  from  dailies  to  annuals,  and  he  served 
in  the  editorial  offices  of  five. 

F"irst  of  these  was  the  So2tthern  Literary  Messenger,  with 
which  he  was  connected  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  from  July,  1835, 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  177 

till  January,  1837.  This  monthly  had  already  printed  some 
fifteen  poems  and  stories  by  Poe,  and  during  his  editorship 
included  eleven  more  ;  but  in  that  year  and  a  half  he  discovered 
and  developed  his  powers  as  a  critic  —  powers  which,  though  of 
secondary  value,  had  more  to  do  with  advancing  his  reputation 
and  building  up  the  Messenger  circulation  than  his  creative 
verse  and  prose.  He  was  writing  in  a  period  when  abject 
deference  to  English  superiority  was  giving  way  to  a  spirit  of 
provincial  puffery.  In  April,  1836,  he  wrote  : 

We  are  becoming  boisterous  and  arrogant  in  the  pride  of  a  too 
speedily  assumed  literary  freedom.  We  throw  off  with  the  most  pre 
sumptuous  and  unmeaning  hauteur  all  deference  whatever  to  foreign 
opinion  ...  we  get  up  a  hue  and  cry  about  the  necessity  of  encouraging 
native  writers  of  merit  —  we  blindly  fancy  that  we  can  accomplish  this 
by  indiscriminate  puffing  of  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  without  taking 
the  trouble  to  consider  that  what  we  choose  to  denominate  encourage 
ment  is  thus,  by  its  general  application,  precisely  the  reverse.  In  a 
word,  so  far  from  being  ashamed  of  the  many  disgraceful  literary  fail 
ures  to  which  our  own  inordinate  vanities  and  misapplied  patriotism 
have  lately  given  birth,  and  so  far  from  deeply  lamenting  that  these  daily 
puerilities  are  of  home  manufacture,  we  adhere  pertinaciously  to  our 
original  blindly  conceived  idea,  and  thus  often  find  ourselves  involved 
in  the  gross  paradox  of  liking  a  stupid  book  the  better  because,  sure 
enough,  its  stupidity  is  American. 

The  fresh  honesty  of  this  point  of  view  was  doubtless  ree'n- 
forced  by  the  local  gratification  which  Poe  afforded  a  body  of 
Southern  readers  in  laying  low  the  New  York  Knicker 
bockers  and  worrying  the  complacent  New  Englanders.  At 
all  events,  the  circulation  of  the  Messenger  rose  from  seven 
hundred  to  five  thousand  during  his  editorship. 

After  his  break  with  the  proprietqr,  which  came  suddenly 
and  unaccountably,  there  was  a  lapse  of  a  year  and  a  half  before 
he  took  up  his  duties  with  Burton  s  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
continuing  in  a  perfunctory  way  for  about  a  year  (July,  1839- 
June,  1840)  when,  with  much  bitter  feeling,  the  connection 


1/8        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

was  severed.  In  the  following  April  Burtons  was  bought  out 
and  combined  with  Graham's  feeble  monthly,  The  Casket,  as 
Graham  s  Magazine,  and  Poe  gave  over  his  own  design  to 
found  the  Penn  Magazine  to  join  forces  with  a  new  employer. 
In  the  year  that  ensued  he  wrote  and  published  several  analytical 
tales  and  continued  his  aggressive  criticism,  while  the  magazine, 
under  good  management,  ran  its  circulation  up  from  eight  to 
forty  thousand.  Then  suddenly,  in  May,  1842,  he  was  a  free 
lance  once  more,  facing  this  time  two  years  of  duress  before  he 
secured  another  salaried  position,  now  with  the  Evening  Mirror 
and  the  tactful  Willis,  as  a  ''mechanical  paragraphist."  The 
months  of  quiet  routine  with  this  combination  daily-weekly  were 
marked  by  one  overshadowing  event,  the  burst  of  applause  with 
which  "  The  Raven  "  was  greeted.  It  was  the  literary  sensation 
of  the  day,  it  was  supplemented  by  the  chance  publication  in 
the  same  month  of  a  tale  in  Godeys  and  a  biographical  sketch 
in  Graham  s,  and  it  was  reprinted  in  scores  of  papers.  Such 
general  approval,  dear  to  the  heart  of  any  artist,  seems  for  the 
moment  to  have  lifted  Poe  out  of  his  usual  saturnine  mood. 
"  I  send  you  an  early  number  of  the  B.  Journal"  he  wrote  to 
his  friend  F.  W.  Thomas,  "  containing  my  *  Raven.'  It  was 
copied  by  Briggs,  my  associate,  before  I  joined  the  paper. 
The  '  Raven  '  has  had  a  great '  run  '  .  .  .  —  but  I  wrote  it  for  the 
express  purpose  of  running  —  just  as  I  did  the  'Gold  Bug,' 
you  know.  The  bird  has  beat  the  bug,  though,  all  hollow." 

The  reference  to  his  new  associate  records  another  editorial 
shift.  Poe's  position  on  the  Mirror  had  been  too  frankly  subordi 
nate  to  last  long,  and  with  the  best  of  good  feelings  he  changed 
to  an  associate  editorship  of  the  Broadway  Journal 'in  February, 
1845.  With  the  next  October  he  had  realized  his  long-cherished 
ambition  by  obtaining  full  control ;  yet  before  the  year  was  out, 
for  lack  of  money  and  of  business  capacity,  his  house  of 
cards  had  fallen  and  the  Journal  was  a  thing  of  the  past.  One 
more  magazine  contribution  of  major  importance  remained  for 
him.  This  was  the  publication  in  Godeys,  from  May  to 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  179 

October,  1846,  of  "The  Literati,"  a  series  of  comments  on 
thirty-eight  New  York  authors,  done  in  his  then  well-known 
critical  manner.  His  story-writing  was  nearly  over  ;  "  The  Cask 
of  Amontillado  "  was  the  only  important  one  of  the  last  half 
dozen,  but  of  the  twelve  poems  later  than  the  "  Raven,"  four 
—  "Ulalume,"  "To  Helen,"  "Annabel  Lee,"  and  "The 
Bells  "  — are  among  his  best  known. 

The  personal  side  of  Poe's  life  after  his  last  breach  with 
Mr.  Allan,  in  1834,  is  largely  clouded  by  poverty  and  bitterness 
and  a  relaxing  grip  on  his  own  powers.  His  marriage  to  his 
cousin,  Virginia  Clemm,  in  1836  was  unqualifiedly  happy  only 
until  the  undermining  of  her  health,  three  years  later,  and  from 
then  on  was  the  cause  of  a  shattering  succession  of  hopes  and 
fears  ending  with  her  death  in  1847.  His  relations  to  most 
other  men  and  women  were  complicated  by  his  erratic,  jealous, 
and  too  often  abusive  behavior.  Only  those  friendships  endured 
which  were  built  on  the  magnanimous  tolerance  or  the  insuper 
able  amiability  of  his  friends  and  associates.  His  nature,  which 
was  self-centered  and  excitable  to  begin  with,  became  perverted 
by  mishaps  of  his  own  making  until  the  characterization  of 
his  latest  colleague  was  wholly  justified.  Said  C.  F.  Briggs  to 
James  Russell  Lowell : 

He  cannot  conceive  of  anybody's  doing  anything,  except  for  his  own 
personal  advantage ;  and  he  says,  with  perfect  sincerity,  and  entire 
unconsciousness  of  the  exposition  which  it  makes  of  his  own  mind 
and  heart,  that  he  looks  upon  all  reformers  as  madmen ;  and  it  is  for 
this  reason  that  he  is  so  great  an  egoist.  .  .  .  Therefore,  he  attributes 
all  the  favor  which  Longfellow,  yourself,  or  anybody  else  receives 
from  the  world  as  an  evidence  of  the  ignorance  of  the  world,  and  the 
lack  of  that  favor  in  himself  he  attributes  to  the  world's  malignity. 

Under  the  accumulating  distresses  of  his  last  two  years  the 
decline  of  will-power  and  self-control  terminated  with  his  tragic 
death  in  Baltimore  in  1849.  The  gossip  which  pursued  him 
all  his  life  has  continued  relentlessly,  even  to  the  point  of  color 
ing  the  prejudices  of  his  biographers,  —  commonly  classified  as 


1 80        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

"  malignants  "  and  "amiables,"  —  but  only  such  facts  and  re 
ports  have  been  mentioned  here  as  have  some  legitimate  bearing 
on  his  habits  of  mind  as  an  author. 

POP  was,  jjrgLa  writer  of  poems,  then  of  prose  tales,  and  theji 
of  analytical  criticisms,  and  one  may  take  a  cue  from  his  famous 
discussion  of  the  "  Raven  "  by  considering  them  in  reverse 
order.  His  theory  of  art  can  be  derived  from  the  seventy-odd 
articles  on  his  contemporaries  which  he  printed  and  reprinted, 
from  the  days  of  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger  to  those  of 
Godeys,  and  from  the  summarized  essays  which  he  formulated 
in  the  three  latest  years.  "The  Philosophy  of  Composition" 
and  "The  Poetic  Principle"  are  equally  well  illustrated  by  his 
own  poems  and  his  comments  on  the  poems  of  others.  He 
accepts  the  division  of  the  world  of  mind  into  Intellect,  which 
concerns  itself  with  Truth  ;  Taste,  which  informs  us  of  the 
Beautiful ;  and  the  Moral  Sense,  which  is  regardful  of  Duty. 
He  defines  poetry  of  words  as  "  The  Rhythmical  Creation  of. 
Beauty.  Its  sole  arbiter  is  Taste.  With  the  Intellect  or  with  the 
Conscience  it  has  only  collateral  relations.  Unless  incidentally,, 
it  has  no  concern  whatever  either  with  Duty  or  with  Truth." 
In  the  moods  aroused  by  the  contemplation  of  beauty  man's 
soul  is  elevated  most  nearly  to  the  level  of  God ;  and  the  privi 
lege  of  Poetry  —  one  refrains  from  using  such  a  word  as  "  func 
tion  "  —  is  to  achieve  an  elevation  of  soul  which  springs  from 
thought,  feeling,  and  will,  but  which  is  above  them  all. 

For  the  composition  of  poetry,  thus  limited  in  its  province, 
he  developed  a  fairly  rigid  formula,  a  Procrustes  bed  on 
which  he  laid  out  his  several  contemporaries.  Poems,  he  said, 
should  be  brief ;  they  should  start  with  the  adoption  of  a  novel 
and  vivid  effect ;  they  should  be  pitched  in  a  tone  of  sadness  ; 
they  should  avail  themselves  of  fitting  refrains ;  they  should 
be  presented,  in  point  of  setting,  within  a  circumscribed  space ; 
and  always  they  should  be  scrupulously  regardful  of  Conven 
tional  poetic  rhythms.  These  artistic  canons  are  largely  observed 
in  his  poems  and  severely  insisted  on  in  his  criticisms.  He 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  181 

was  immensely  interested  in  detail  effects,  and  hardly  less  so 
in  the  isolated  details  themselves.  All  the  fallacious  and  inconr 
sistent  metaphors  of  Drake's  "  Culprit  Fay,"  for  example,  by 
which  the  reader  is  distracted,  he  assembled  into  a  final 
indictment  of  that  hasty  poem ;  and  in  the  works  of  Elizabeth 
Barrett,  of  whom  he  was  one  of  the  earliest  champions,  he 
discussed  diction,  syntax,  prosody,  and  lines  of  distinguished 
merit  in  the  minutest  detail.  Seldom  in  these  critiques  does 
he  rise  to  the  task  of  expounding  principles,  and  more  seldom 
still  does  he  discuss  any  principles  of  life.  Always  it  is  the  cameo, 
the  gold  filigree,  the  miniature  on  ivory  under  the  microscope. 
It  is  not  unfair  to  apply  his  own  method  to  him,  with  refer 
ence,  for  instance,  to  poetic  passages  he  most  admired,  by 
quoting  a  few  of  his  quotations.  From  Anna  Cora  Mowatt : 

Thine  orbs  are  lustrous  with  a  light 

Which  ne'er  illumes  the  eye 
Till  heaven  is  bursting  on  the  sight 

And  earth  is  fleeting  by. 

From  Fitz-Greene  Halleck : 

They  were  born  of  a  race  of  funeral  flowers 
That  garlanded  in  long-gone  hours, 
A  Templar's  knightly  tomb. 

From  Bayard  Taylor : 

In  the  red  desert  moulders  Babylon 

And  the  wild  serpent's  hiss 
Echoes  in  Petra's  palaces  of  stone 

And  waste  Persepolis. 

From  William  Wallace : 

The  very  dead  astir  within  their  coffined  deeps. 

From  Estelle  Anna  Lewis : 

Etna's  lava  tears  — 
Ruins  and  wrecks  and  nameless  sepulchres. 


1 82        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

And  from  Bryant  the  concluding  familiar  lines  of  "  Thana- 
topsis."  These  are  the  natural  selections  of  the  mind  which 
evolved  "  The  Masque  of  the  Red  Death  "  and  "  The  Cask 
of  Amontillado "  and  "  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher." 
His  readiness  to  indulge  in  a  " pleasurable  melancholy"  led 
him  to  delight  chiefly  in  the  mortuary  beauties  of  his  fellow-poets. 

At  times,  to  be  sure,  he  responded  to  the  beauties  of  entire 
compositions.  "  Thanatopsis,"  "To  a  Waterfowl,"  "June," 
all  appealed  to  him  for  the  "  elevation  of  soul "  on  which  he 
laid  critical  stress,  and  so  did  poems  hither  and  yon  by  others 
than  Bryant.  But  for  the  most  part  even  those  productions 
which  stirred  or  pleased  him  resulted  in  detailed  technical 
comments  on  defects  of  unity  or  structure  or  style,  and  for 
the  most  part  what  he  commended  was  not  so  much  ideas  as 
poetic  concepts.  He  could  lose  himself  in  the  chromatic  tints 
from  one  facet  of  a  diamond  to  the  extent  of  quite  forgetting 
the  stone  in  its  entirety.  Hence  it  was  that  Poe  was  a  poet 
in  the  limited  sense  of  one  who  is  highly  and  consciously 
skilled  in  the  achievement  of  poetic  effects,  but  by  his  own 
definition  of  poetry  wholly  uninspired  toward  the  presentation 
of  poetic  truth.  If  the  creative  gift  is  "to  see  life  steadily  and 
to  see  it  whole,"  Poe  was  as  far  from  fulfilling  the  equation  as 
mortal  could  be  —  as  far,  let  us  say,  as  William  Blake  was. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  Poe  failed  to  appreciate  or  to  write 
the  kind  of  poetry  in  which  he  believed.  It  is  an  estimate  of 
his  own  sense  of  values  rather  than  for  the  moment  of  his 
performance.  A  letter  to  Lowell  written  in  1844  presents  the 
negative  background  against  which  his  theory  and  practice  are 
thrown  into  relief. 

I  really  perceive  that  vanity  about  which  most  men  merely  prate, 

—  the  vanity  of  the  human  or  temporal  life.    I  live  continually  in  a 
reverie  of  the  future.    I  have  no  faith  in  human  perfectibility.    I  think 
that  human  exertion  will  have  no  appreciable  effect  on  humanity.  .  .  . 
I  cannot  agree  to  lose  sight  of  man  the  individual  in  man  the  mass. 

—  I  have  no  belief  in  spirituality.    I  think  the  word  a  mere  word.  .  .  . 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  183 

You  speak  of  "an  estimate  of  my  life,"  —  and,  from  what  I  have 
already  said,  you  will  see  that  I  have  none  to  give.  I  have  been  too 
deeply  conscious  of  the  mutability  and  evanescence  of  temporal  things 
to  give  any  continuous  effort  to  anything  —  to  be  consistent  in  anything. 
My  life  has  been  whim  —  impulse  —  passion  —  a  longing  for  solitude 
—  a  scorn  of  all  things  present,  in  an  earnest  desire  for  the  future. 

An  estimate  of  his  own  plays  and  poems  can  be  fairly  made 
only  in  the  light  of  this  thing  that  he  set  out  to  do,  a  fairness 
of  treatment,  by  the  way,  which  he  often  withheld  from  the 
objects  of  his  criticism.  Not  to  paraphrase  Poe's  minute 
analysis  of  "  The  Raven,"  we  may  select  the  "  Ulalume  "  of  a 
year  or  two  later  as  a  production  which  satisfies  the  formula 
of  "  The  Philosophy  of  Composition  "  and  which  is  richer  in 
meaning  and  in  self -revelation  than  any  other.  In  length  and 
tone  and  subject  and  treatment  it  is  according  to  rule.  In 
ninety-four  lines  of  increasing  tension  the  ballad  of  the  bereaved 
lover  is  told.  The  effect  toward  which  it  moves  is  the  shocked 
moment  of  discovery  that  grief  for  the  lost  love  is  not  yet 
"pleasurable,"  but  on  this  anniversary  night  is  still  a  source 
of  poignant  bitterness.  It  is  built  around  a  series  of  unheeded 
warnings  —  as  "The  Cask  of  Amontillado"  is  —  which  fall 
with  accumulated  weight  when  the  lover's  cry  explains  at  last 
the  mistrusts  and  agonies  and  scruples  of  the  pacified  Psyche. 
The  effect  is  intensified  by  use  of  the  whole  ominous  first 
stanza  in  a  complex  of  refrains  throughout  the  rest  of  the 
ballad.  The  employment  of  onomatopoeia,  or  "  sound-sense  " 
words,  is  more  subtle  and  more  effective  than  in  "  The  Bells  " 
or  "  The  Raven  "  ;  and  the  event  occurs  in  the  usual  circum 
scribed  space  —  the  cypress-lined  alley  which  is  blocked  by 
the  door  of  the  tomb. 

These,  however,  are  the  mere  externals  of  the  poem ;  the 
amount  of  discussion  to  which  it  has  been  subjected  shows 
that,  as  a  poem  of  any  depth  should,  it  contains  more  than 
meets  the  eye.  It  is  a  bit  of  life  history,  for  it  refers  to  Poe's 
own  bereavement,  but  it  is,  furthermore,  a  piece  of  analysis 


1 84        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

with  a  general  as  well  as  a  personal  application.  The  "  I  "  of 
the  ballad  is  one  half  of  a  divided  personality,  what,  for  want 
of  a  better  term,  may  be  called  the  masculine  element.  He  is 
self-confident,  blundering,  slow  to  perceive,  perfectly  brave,  in 
his  blindness  to  any  cause  for  fear.  Psyche,  the  soul,  is  the  com 
plementary,  or  feminine,  element  in  human  nature  —  intuitive, 
timid,  eager  for  the  reassurance  that  loquacious  male  stupidity 
can  afford  her.  They  are  the  elements  incarnate  in  Macbeth 
and  Lady  Macbeth  in  the  early  half  of  the  play,  and  the  story 
in  "  Ulalume  "  is  parallel  to  the  story  of  Macbeth  up  to  the 
time  of  the  murder.  Yet,  and  here  is  the  defect  in  Poe,  true  as 
the  analysis  may  be,  in  Poe's  hands  it  becomes  nothing  more 
than  that.  It  is  like  a  stage  setting  by  Gordon  Craig  or  Leon 
Bakst  —  very  somber,  very  suggestive,  very  artistic,  but  so  com 
plete  an  artifice  that  it  could  never  be  mistaken  for  anything 
but  an  analogy  to  life.  It  is,  in  a  word,  the  product  of  one 
whose  "life  has  been  whim  —  impulse  —  passion  —  a  longing 
for  solitude  —  a  scorn  of  all  things  present." 

Poe's  briefer  lyrics  are  written  to  a  simpler  formula,  modi 
fied  from  that  for  the  narratives.  The  resemblance  is  mainly 
to  be  found  in  the  scrupulous  care  and  nicety  of  measure,  irr 
the  adjustment  of  diction  to  content,  and  in  the  heightened 
dream  tone  prevailing  in  them.  As  they  are  not  attached  to 
any  scenic  background,  the  appeals  to  the  mind's  eye  are  un 
encumbered  by  any  obligations  to  continuity.  Poe's  technique 
in  some  of  the  best  is  quite  in  the  manner  of  the  twentieth- 
century  imagists,  and  no  less  effective  than  in  the  best  of  these 
poets  at  their  best.  The  earlier  of  the  two  poems  entitled 
"  To  Helen  "  is  quite  matchless  in  its  beauty  of  sound  and 
of  suggestion,  but  it  is  utterly  vulnerable  before  the  kind  of 
searching  analysis  to  which  he  subjected  the  verse  of  the 
luckless  contemporary  who  stirred  his  critical  disapproval. 
One  has  not  the  slightest  objective  conception  of  what  "those 
Nicean  barks "  may  have  been  nor  why  the  beauty  which 
attracts  a  wanderer  homeward  should  be  likened  to  a  ship 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  185 

which  bears  him  to  his  native  shore.  The  two  fine  lines  from 
Byron  in  the  second  stanza  reverberate  splendidly  in  their 
new  setting,  but  again  they  seem  to  have  small  likeness  to 
the  beauty  of  Helen.  And  the  last  pair  of  lovely  lines  are 
altogether  beyond  understanding.  Read  in  the  dream  mood; 
however,  which  is  utterly  unreasonable  but  utterly  unexacting, 
"  To  Helen  "  is  as  captivating  as  the  sound  of  a  distant  melody. 

Poe's  tales  are  of  two  very  different  sorts :  those  that  are  in 
the  likeness  of  his  poetry  and  those  that  were  done  in  the 
analytical  spirit  of  his  criticism.  "  Ligeia  "  is  an  example  of 
the  poet's  work,  and,  indeed,  includes,  as  some  others  do,  one 
of  his  own  lyrics,  "The  Conqueror  Worm."  This  is  cast  in 
the  misty  mid-region  between  life  and  death,  with  none  of  the 
pleasures  of  the  one  except  as  foils  to  the  reduplicated  horrors 
of  .the  other.  In  all  the  laws  of  construction  it  is  one  with 
"The  Raven"  and  "  Ulalume,"  as  it  is  also  in  general  effect. 
Like  the  poems,  too,  these  narratives  contain  no  human  interest, 
unless  this,  is  derived  from  the  consciousness  that  the  "  I  " 
narrator  is  made  in  the  image  of  Poe  and  hence  is  partly 
his  spokesman,  —  a  claim  on  the  attention  to  which  the  stories, 
if  considered  as  works  of  art,  have  no  title.  Once  again  these 
tales  and  poems  are  of  the  same  family  in  the  degree  to  which 
they  subordinate  any  kind  of  event  to  the  dominant  mood  and 
in  the  painstaking  use  of  every  accessory  that  will  contribute 
to  a  sense  of  shivery  horror. 

Perhaps,  to  indulge  in  the  type  of  classification  that  is  after 
the  manner  of  Poe,  a  connecting  group  should  be  mentioned 
between  the  two  extreme  types.  This  includes  the  kind  of 
story  that  substitutes  the  horrors  of  crime  and  its  consequences 
for  the  horrors  of  death,  giving  over  any  elevation  of  soul  for 
the  thrill  derived  from  the  malignance  of  fear  or  hatred.  They 
deal  with  crime  as  quite  distinct  from  sin,  and  when  they 
involve  conscience  at  all,  introduce  the  conscience  that  doth 
make  cowards  of  us,  rather  than  the  voice  of  guidance  or  cor 
rection.  Of  this  sort  are  "  The  Imp  of  the  Perverse  "  —  less  a 


1 86        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

tale  than  an  essaylet  with  an  illustrative  anecdote  —  and  "The 
Black  Cat "  and  "  The  Cask  of  Amontillado."  In  some  ways 
this  story  of  cold-blooded  vengeance  comes  nearer  than  any 
other  of  Poe's  tales  to  completely  representing  its  author's 
artistic  designs.  In  the  matter  of  its  contrivance  it  is  cut  on 
the  pattern  of  "  The  Raven."  One  can  apply  "  The  Philoso 
phy  of  Composition  "  by  replacing  each  allusion  to  the  poem 
with  a  parallel  from  the  story.  Montresor,  the  avenger,  is  an 
incarnate  devil ;  Fortunate,  the  victim,  is  a  piece  of  walking 
vanity  not  worth  bothering  to  destroy.  The  slow  murder  is 
conceived  during  "  the  supreme  madness  of  the  carnival 
season,"  is  pursued  in  a  tone  of  grim  mockery,  and  concluded 
with  ironic  laughter  and  the  jingling  of  the  fool's-cap  bells. 
And  finally,  to  free  the  tale  from  any  least  relation  to  life,  the 
assassination  does  "trammel  up  the  consequence,  and  catch 
with  his  surcease,  success." 

The  stories  that  show  the  mind  of  the  critic  —  and  the 
greatest  of  them  come  in  his  later  career  —  are  in  different 
fashions  riddle-solutions,  the  most  famous  being  "  The  Mur 
ders  in  the  Rue  Morgue,"  "The  Mystery  of  Marie  Roget," 
"The  Gold  Bug,"  and  "The  Purloined  Letter,"  pioneers  in 
the  field  of  the  detective  story.  In  the  elaboration  of  these 
Poe  combined  his  gift  as  a  narrator  with  the  powers  which 
appeared  equally  in  deciphering  codes,  discrediting  Maelzel's 
chess  player,  dealing  with  the  complications  of  "  Three  Sundays 
in  a  Week,"  or  foreseeing  the  outcome  of  "  Barnaby  Rudge  " 
from  the  opening  chapter.  Still,  as  in  the  earlier  types,  they 
are  composed  of  the  things  that  life  is  made  of,  but  themselves 
are  uninformed  with  the  breath  of  life.  It  has  been  well  said  by 
a  recent  critic  that  the  detective  story  is  in  a  way  a  concession 
to  the  moral  sense  of  the  reading  public,  following  the  paths 
of  the  older  romance  of  roguery,  but  pursuing  the  wrongdoer  to 
the  prison  or  the  gallows  instead  of  sharing  in  his  defiance  of 
the  social  order.  But  this  concession  is  one  in  which  Poe  had 
no  hand.  For  him  detection  is  an  end  in  itself ;  he  is  like  the 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  187 

sportsman  who  is  stirred  by  the  zest  of  the  hunt  and  shoots 
to  kill,  but  at  the  day's  end,  with  fine  disregard,  hands  over 
his  bag  to  the  gamekeeper.  It  should  be  said  as  a  last  word 
in  the  classification  of  Poe's  stories  that  the  best  work  in  the 
threescore  and  ten  can  be  found  in  one  fourth  of  that  number, 
that  the  remainder  are  in  varying  degrees  overburdened  by 
exposition,  and  that  the  least  successful,  unredeemed  by  tech 
nical  excellence  and  unanimated  by  any  vital  meaning,  trail 
off  into  "  sound  and  fury,  signifying  nothing." 

As  a  contemporary  figure,  to  summarize,  Poe  was  a  vigorous 
agent  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  American  magazine,  a  stimu 
lator  of  honest  critical  judgment,  a  writer  of  a  few  poems 
and  a  few  tales  of  the  finest  but  the  most  attenuated  art.  At 
his  lowest  he  is  a  purveyor  of  thrills  to  readers  of  literary 
inexperience,  people  with  just  a  shade  more  maturity  than  the 
habitual  matinee-goer ;  and  at  the  other  end  of  the  scale  he 
serves  as  a  stimulant  to  the  decadents  who  are  weary  of  actual 
life  and  real  romance,  whose  minds  are  furnished  like  the 
apartment  in  "The  Assignation,"  in  the  embellishment  of 
which  "the  evident  design  had  been  to  dazzle  and  astound." 
At  his  highest,  however,  he  has  exerted  an  extraordinary 
influence  not  only  on  those  who  have  fallen  completely  into 
his  ways  but  on  several  prose  writers  of  distinction  who  have 
bettered  their  instructions.  Wilkie  Collins,  Conan  Doyle, 
Stevenson,  Chesterton,  are  only  the  beginning  of  a  list,  and 
in  only  one  language,  who  have  taken  up  the  detective  story 
where  Poe  laid  it  down.  Wells  and  Jules  Verne  have  devel 
oped  the  scientific  wonder-tales.  Bierce,  Stevenson,  Kipling, 
Hardy,  have  written  stories  of  horror  and  fantasy ;  and  the 
touch  of  his  art  is  suggested  by  many  who  have  absorbed 
something  from  it  without  becoming  disciples  or  imitators 
of  it  or  refiners  upon  it. 

:- 


1 88        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

EDGAR  ALLAN  POE.  Works.  Virginia  edition.  J.  A.  Harrison,  editor. 
1902.  17  vols.  Another  edition.  E.  C.  Stedman  and  G.  E.  Wood- 
berry,  editors,  1894-1895.  10  vols.  Best  single-volume  editions  are: 
J.  H.  Whitty,  editor,  1911,  and  Killis  Campbell,  editor,  1917.  Poe's 
chief  works  appeared  originally  in  book  form  as  follows :  Tamerlane 
and  Other  Poems,  1827;  Al  Aaraaf,  Tamerlane,  and  Minor  Poems, 
1829;  Poems,  1831;  Narrative  of  Arthur  Gordon  Pym,  1838;  The 
Conchologist's  First  Book,  1839;  Tales  of  the  Grotesque  and 
Arabesque,  1 839 ;  The  Raven,  and  Other  Poems,  1 845 ;  Tales, 
1845;  Eureka:  a  Prose  Poem,  1848;  The  Literati,  1850. 

Bibliography 

The  best  is  by  Killis  Campbell  in  the  Cambridge  History  of  Ameri 
can  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  452-468.  See  also  Vol.  X,  Stedman- 
Woodberry  edition,  and  Vol.  XVI,  J.  A.  Harrison  edition. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  of  Poe  is  by  George  E.  Woodberry.   1884. 
BASKERVILL,  W.  M.    Southern  Writers. 

BEAUDELAIRE,  CHARLES.    Edgar  Poe,  sa  vie  et  ses  oeuvres.   1856. 
BROWNELL,  W.  C.    American  Prose  Masters.    1909. 
CAMPBELL,  KILLIS.    Edgar  Allan  Poe.   Cambridge  History  of  Ameri 
can  Literature,  Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  chap.  xiv. 
CAMPBELL,  KILLIS.    Introduction  to  Edition  of  Poems.    1917. 
COLLINS,  J.  C.   The  Poetry  and  Poets  of  America. 
FRANCE,  ANATOLE.    La  vie  litteraire,  Vol.  IV. 
GATES,  L.  E.    Studies  and  Appreciations.    1900. 
GRISWOLD,  R.  W.    Memoir  of  Poe  (with  Poe's  works).    1850-1856. 
HARRISON,  J.  A.    Life  and  Letters  of  Poe.   1902. 
HUTTON,  R.  H.    Contemporary  Thought  and  Thinkers.    1900. 
INGRAM,  J.  H.    Life,  Letters,  and  Opinions  of  Poe.    1880. 
KENT,  C.  W.    Poe  the  Poet  (in  Vol.  VII,  Virginia  edition).   1902. 
LANG,  ANDREW.    Letters  to  Dead  Authors.    1886. 
LAUVRIERE,  E.    Edgar  Poe  :  sa  vie  et  son  ceuvre.   1904. 
MACY,  JOHN.    Poe.   (Beacon  Biographies.)    1907. 
MALLARME,  S.    Divagations,  and  Poemes  de  Edgar  Allan  Poe.   1888. 
MINOR,  B.  B.    The  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  1834-1864.   1905. 
MORE,  P.  E.    Shelburne  Essays.    Ser.  i.   1907. 
MOSES,  M.  J.    Literature  of  the  South.   1910. 

RICHARDSON,  C.  F.    American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  chap.  iv.    1889. 
ROBERTSON,  J.  M.    New  Essays  towards  a  Critical  Method.   1897. 
STEDMAN,  E.  C.    Poets  of  America.    1885  and  1898. 
STEPHEN,  LESLIE.    Hours  in  a  Library.    Ser.  i. 
SWINBURNE,  A.  C.    Under  the  Microscope.   1872. 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE  189 

TRENT,  W.  P.    Edgar  Allan  Poe  (announced  in  E.M.L.  Ser.). 
WENDELL,  BARRETT.    Stelligeri  and  Other  Essays.   1893. 
WHITTY,  J.  H.    Memoir  in  edition  of  Poe's  Poems.   1911. 
WOODBERRY,  G.  E.    America  in  Literature,  chap.  iv.   1908. 


TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  "  The  Purloined  Letter  "  and  compare  it  as  a  detective  story 
with  any  one  of  Conan  Doyle's  detections  of  theft. 

Read  the  introductions  of  ten  or  twelve  stories  for  Poe's  method 
of  establishing  the  dominant  mood. 

Apply  the  formula  presented  in  "  The  Philosophy  of  Composition  " 
to  "  Annabel  Lee  "  and  to  any  of  Poe's  best-known  prose  tales. 

No  intelligent  estimate  of  Poe  can  be  reached  without  reading 
his  two  analytical  essays,  "  The  Philosophy  of  Composition "  and 
"The  Poetic  Principle." 

Compare  the  "I"  in  Poe  with  the  "I"  in  Whitman.  Read 
"  William  Wilson  "  and  "  The  Man  in  the  Crowd,"  which  are  felt  to 
have  more  of  autobiography  in  them  than  any  others. 

For  the  influence  of  Byron  on  Poe  and  on  various  other  impres 
sionable  Americans  see  the  index  to  this  volume,  and  note  the  variety 
of  ways  in  which  it  was  recorded. 

Light  will  be  thrown  on  Poe's  relationship  to  the  periodicals  through 
a  reading  of  passages  on  the  magazines  with  which  he  was  connected 
in  "  The  Magazine  in  America,"  by  Algernon  Tassin.  See  also  the 
volume  called  "  The  Southern  Literary  Messenger,"  by  B.  B.  Minor. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  TRANSCENDENTALISTS 

With  the  passing  of  Irving,  Cooper,  and  Bryant  the  leader 
ship  in  American  letters  was  lost  to  New  York.  Indeed,  by 
1850,  while  all  this  trio  were  living,  four  men  in  eastern 
Massachusetts  were  in  full  career,  —  Emerson,  Longfellow, 
Lowell,  and  Whittier ;  and  before  the  death  of  Irving,  in 
1859,  Hawthorne,  Thoreau,  and  Holmes  came  into  their  full 
powers.  The  New  Yorkers  had  done  a  very  distinguished 
work.  The  two  prose  writers  in  particular  had  shown  talents 
of  which  their  countrymen  could  be  proud  and  had  introduced 
the  New  World  to  the  Old..  Yet,  though  their  fame  was  des 
tined  to  live,  their  influence  on  other  authors  was  bound  to  die 
with  them  because  they  both  were  looking  backward.  The 
roots  of  these  men  were  struck  deep  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
Cooper's  strength  lay  in  his  ability  to  write  stories  of  the 
romantic  past.  Even  when  he  brought  them  up  to  date,  as  in 
"The  Pioneer"  and  "The  Prairie,"  he  presented  the  decline 
of  a  passing  type  of  American  life.  When  he  wrote  of  the 
present  pointing  to  the  future,  as  in  "  Homeward  Bound  "  and 
"Home  as  Found,"  he  was  filled  with  distress  and  alarm. 

^5: 

He  was  bred  in  the  traditions  of  aristocracy ;  he  believed  in 
the  theories  of  democracy,  but  he  was  very  much  afraid  that 
they  would  not  turn  out  well  in  practice.  Irving  was  a  gentle 
man  of  the  old  school.  He  was  loyal  to  the  ideals  of  his 
country  and  confident  of  its  future,  but  he  was  fascinated  by 
the  traditions  of  England  and  Europe.  When  he  wrote  of 
the  weaknesses  of  his  city  and  his  fellow-citizens  he  cast  his 
gentle  satires  into  the  form  made  popular  by  two  Englishmen 
of  a  bygone  day,  and  limited  himself,  as  they  had  done,  to 

190 


THE  TRANSCENDENTALISTS  191 

commenting  on  customs,  manners,  recreations  —  the  external 
habits  of  daily  life.  Of_  the  three  Bryant  was  the  only  modern 
man.  His  later  life  was  finely  admirable ;  but,  though  his  think 
ing  was  wise  and  just,  he  influenced  men  less  as  a  thinker  than 
as  a  stalwart  citizen.  The  New  Yorkers,  in  a  word,  all  wrote 
as  men  who  were  educated  in  the  world  of  action ;  they  were 
almost  untouched  by  the  deeper  currents  of  human  thought 
which  in  the  nineteenth  century  were  to  make  great  changes 
in  the  world. 

In  JJJ2.I,  the  year  of  the  fifth  edition  of  "  The  Sketch 
Book"  and  "The  Spy  "and  Bryant's  first  volume,  there  was 
growing  up  in  the  quieter  surroundings  of  Boston  a  genera 
tion  of  New  England  boys  with  a  different  training.  They  all 
went  to  and  through  college,  most  of  them  to  Harvard,  and 
after  college  they  set  to  reading  philosophy.  Many  of  them 
came  from  a  long  line  of  Puritan  ancestry,  as  Bryant  did. 
*Unlike  Bryant  several  of  them  felt  a  distrust  and  dislike  for 
the  sternness  of  the  old  creeds.  Yet  they  had  the  strength  of 
Puritan  character  in  them  and  the  born  habit  of  thinking 
deeply  on  "the  things  that  are  not  seen  and  eternal."  What 
was  new  in  them  was  that  they  were  prepared  to  think  inde 
pendently  and  to  come  to  their  own  conclusions.  The  reading 
of  these  boys  was  no  longer  chiefly  in  Pope,  Addison,  and 
Goldsmith.  It  was  in  the  great  English  writers  who  were 
just  arriving  at  fame — Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Carlyle  — 
or  in  the  French  and  German  philosophers. 

In  the  Concord  group  —  Emerson,  Thoreau,  and  Hawthorne 
—  the  contrast  with  the  New  Yorkers  is  particularly  striking. 
They  were  anything  but  men  of  the  world.  When  they  began 
to  write  they  stayed  in  the  seclusion  of  little  villages  and  waited 
patiently.  They  matured  slowly.  Emerson  was  past  middle  life 
before  America  heeded  him  ;  Hawthorne  was  forty-six  at  the 
time  of  his  first  marked  success ;  Thoreau's  fame  did  not  come 
till  after  his  death.  They  were  not  M  team  workers."  Emerson 
was  a  clergyman  for  a  short  while,  but  retired  in  the  very  year 


192        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

when  Bryant  began  his  long  service  with  the  Evening  Post\ 
Hawthorne  was  a  recluse  for  fourteen  years  after  college  and 
then  held  positions  reluctantly  for  only  half  of  his  remaining 
life  ;  Thoreau  never  put  on  the  harness.  They  were  not  swept 
into  the  current  of  city  life,  —  "warped  out  of  their  own  orbits,"  — 
but,  instead,  they  made  Concord,  whose  "  chief  product "  was 
literature,  more  famous  than  any  center  of  shipping  or  banking 
or  manufacture. 

"Concord  is  a  little  town,"  Emerson  wrote  in  his  Journal, 
"  and  yet  has  its  honors.  We  get  our  handful  of  every  ton 
that  comes  to  the  city."  In  his  address  at  the  two  hundredth 
anniversary  he  dwelt  on  his  pride  in  its  history  and  character. 
He  traced  the  earliest  settlement,  the  partitioning  of  the  land, 
the  events  leading  up  to  the  Revolution,  and,  in  the  presence 
of  some  of  the  aged  survivors,  the  firing  by  the  embattled 
farmers  of  "the  shot  heard  round  the  world"  in  1775.  The 
institution  in  Concord  that  most  appealed  to  him  was  the  town 
meeting,  where  the  whole  body  of  voters  met  to  transact  the 
public  business.  The  meetings  of  those  two  hundred  years 
had  witnessed  much  that  was  petty,  but  on  the  whole  they  had 
made  for  good. 

/  It  is  the  consequence  of  this  institution  that  not  a  school-house,  a 
public  pew,  a  bridge,  a  pound,  a  mill-dam  hath  been  set  up,  or  pulled 
down,  or  altered,  or  bought,  or  sold,  without  the  whole  population  of 
this  town  having  a  voice  in  the  affair.  A  general  contentment  is  the 
result.  And  the  people  truly  feel  that  they  are  lords  of  the  soil.  In 
,  every  winding  road,  in  every  stone  fence,  in  the  smokes  of  the  poor- 
house  chimney,  in  the  clock  on  the  church,  they  read  their  own  power, 
and  consider  at  leisure  the  wisdom  and  error  of  their  judgments. 

Emerson  noted  that  the  English  government  had  recently 
given  to  certain  American  libraries  copies  of  a  splendid  edition 
of  the  "  Domesday  Book  "  and  other  ancient  public  records  of 
England.  A  suitable  return  gift,  he  thought,  would  be  the 
printed  records  of  Concord,  not  simply  because  Concord  was 
Concord  but  because  Concord  was  America.  "  Tell  them  the 


THE  TRANSCENDENTALISTS  193 

Union  has  twenty-four  states,  and  Massachusetts  is  one.  Tell 
them  that  Massachusetts  has  three-hundred  towns,  and  Concord 
is  one ;  that  in  Concord  are  five  hundred  rateable  polls  [that  is, 
taxable  voters]  and  every  one  has  an  equal  vote."  In  closing  his 
address  Emerson  gave  his  reason  for  choosing  when  thirty-one 
years  old  to  come  back  to  "the  fields  of  his  fathers"  and  spend 
his  life  there. 

I  believe  this  town  to  have  been  the  dwelling  place  at  all  times  since 
its  planting  of  pious  and  excellent  persons,  who  walked  meekly  through 
the  paths  of  common  life,  who  served  God,  and  loved  man,  and  never 
let  go  the  hope  of  immortality.  The  benediction  of  their  prayers,  and 
of  their  principles  lingers  around  us. 

In  the  Journal  he  carries  this  general  indorsement  down 
to  particulars  that  would  have  been  out  of  place  in  a  public 
memorial  address. 

Perhaps  in  the  village  we  have  manners  to  paint  which  the  city  life 
does  not  know.  Here  we  have  Mr.  S.,  who  is  man  enough  to  turn 
away  the  butcher,  who  cheats  in  weight,  and  introduces  another  into 
town.  The  other  neighbors  could  n't  take  such  a  step.  .  .  .  There  is 
the  hero  who  will  not  subscribe  to  the  flag-staff,  or  the  engine,  though 
all  say  it  is  mean.  There  is  the  man  who  gives  his  dollar,  but  refuses 
to  give  his  name,  though  all  other  contributors  are  set  down.  There 
is  Mr.  H.,  who  never  loses  his  spirits,  though  always  in  the  minority. . . . 
Here  is  Mr.  C.,  who  says  "  honor  bright,"  and  keeps  it  so.  Here  is 
Mr.  S.,  who  warmly  assents  to  whatever  proposition  you  please  to 
make,  and  Mr.  M.,  who  roundly  tells  you  he  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  thing.  Here,  too,  are  not  to  be  forgotten  our  two  companies, 
the  Light  Infantry  and  the  Artillery,  who  brought  up  one  the  Brigade 
Band  and  one  the  Brass  Band  from  Boston,  set  the  musicians  side 
by  side  under  the  great  tree  on  the  Common,  and  let  them  play  two 
tunes  and  jangle  and  drown  each  other,  and  presently  got  the 
companies  into  active  hustling  and  kicking. 

Thus  Concord  was  a  little  community  with  a  noble  and 
dignified  past  and  at  the  same  time  with  the  homely  virtues, 
oddities,  and  weaknesses  of  a  New  England  village.  In  these 


194       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

J  respects  it  was  a  fit  dwelling  place  for  the  man  who  made  it 
famous,  for  /  they  were  like  the  town  in  being  both  finely 
idealistic  and  very  human.  The  contrast  with  the  New  York 
of  these  same  years  is  vivid  (see  pp.  no,  113,  190  et  al.). 

Centering  about  Concord,  but  by  no  means  located  within  it, 
was  a  "  Transcendental  Movement"  of  which  Emerson  is  con 
sidered  the  chief  exponent.  When  the  proper  nouns  "  Tran- 
scendentalist "  and  "Transcendentalism "  are  used  they  are  made 
to  refer  to  this  movement  in  eastern  Massachusetts.  In  any 
critical  sense,  however,  the  thing  that  they  stood  for  was  only 
an  expression  of  world  thought  and  was  one  of  the  many  out- 
croppings  of  the  movement  toward  independence  of  spirit 
which  had  been  developing  for  generations.  The  refusal  of 
the  nineteenth-century  mind  to  submit  to  a  philosophy  which 
limited  man's  faith  to  the  knowledge  derived  through  the 
senses  had  already  brought  about  in  Germany,  France,  and 
England  a  reaction  which  insisted  on  the  right  of  man  to 
believe  much  which  he  could  not  prove.  Thus  developed 
transcendentalism,  a  system  of  thought  "  based  on  the  assump 
tion  of  certain  fundamental  truths  not  derived  from  experience, 
not  susceptible  of  proof,  which  transcend  human  life,  and  are 
perceived  directly  and  intuitively  by  the  human  mind." 

This  stood  in  complete  contrast  with  the  faith  of  the  Puritans 
and  yet  in  strong  resemblance  to  it.  Like  the.  Calvinists  the 
Transcendentalists  proceeded  from  a  set  of  assumptions  rather 
than  a  set  of  facts,  but  unlike  the  Calvinists  the  Transcenden 
talists  drew  these  assumptions  from  their  own  inner  conviction 
instead  of  from  a  set  of  dogmas  which  had  been  distorted  out 
of  the  Scriptures.  They  believed  in  God,  and  they  found  his 
clearest  expression  in  the  spirit  of  man  and  in  the  natural 
surroundings  in  which  God  had  placed  him.  They  believed 
that  in  each  man  was  a  spark  of  divinity.  They  were  assailed 
because  they  did  not  acknowledge  an  utter  difference  between 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  average  man,  though  their  sin  lay  not  in 
degrading  Christ  to  the  level  of  man,  but  in  exalting  man 


THE  TRANSCENDENTALISTS  195 

potentially  to  the  level  of  Christ.  They  insisted  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  each  individual  to  develop  the  best  that  was  in 
him  on  earth,  thinking  more  of  the  life  here  than  of  the  life 
hereafter.  They  were  inspired  by  the  love  of  God  rather  than 
threatened  by  his  wrath,  and  so  they  "substituted  for  a  dogmatic 
dread  an  illimitable  hope." 

Fortunately  for  the  influence  of  this  group  they  inherited 
the  sound  qualities  of  Puritan  character.  They  therefore  did 
not  lay  themselves  open  to  attack  on  account  of  any  wild 
vagaries  of  conduct.  Emerson  was  a  saint,  Thoreau  an  ascetic, 
Bronson  Alcott  a  pure  philosopher,  Theodore  Parker  a  great 
preacher  and  reformer,  Margaret  Fuller  a  high-minded  woman 
of  letters,  and  the  scores  of  their  associates  just  as  devoted  to  a 
high  religious  ideal  as  any  equal  number  of  the  early  Pilgrims. 

Two  undertakings  chiefly  focused  the  group  activity  of  the 
Transcendentalists.  The  first  of  these  was  the  Dial,  a  quarterly 
publication  which  ran  for  sixteen  numbers,  1840-1844.  The 
so-called  Transcendental  Club,  an  informal  group  of  kindred 
spirits,  came  toward  the  end  of  the  thirties  to  the  point  where 
they  felt  the  need  of  an  "  organ  "  of  their  own.  After  much 
discussion  they  undertook  the  publication  of  this  journal  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  pages  to  an  issue.  For  the  first  two 
years  it  was  under  the  editorship  of  Margaret  Fuller.  When 
her  strength  failed  under  this  extra  voluntary  task,  Emerson, 
with  the  help  of  Thoreau,  took  charge  for  the  remaining  two 
years.  Its  paid  circulation  was  very  small,  never  reaching  two 
hundred  and  fifty,  and  finally,  when  in  the  hands  of  its  third 
set  of  publishers,  it  had  to  be  discontinued,  Emerson  personally 
meeting  the  final  small  deficit.  It  contained  chiefly  essays  of  a 
philosophical  nature,  but  included  in  every  issue  a  rather  rare 
body  of  verse.  The  essays  reflected  and  expounded  German 
thought  and  literature  and  oriental  thought,  and  discussed  prob 
lems  of  art,  literature,  and  philosophy.  The  section  given  to 
critical  reviews  is  extremely  interesting  for  its  quick  response  to 
the  new  writings  which  later  years  have  proved  and  accepted. 


196        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Possibly  the  nearest  analogy  of  to-day  to  the  old  Dial  is  the 
Hibbert  Journal,  —  the  first  journal  of  its  kind  to  achieve  an 
international  circulation  and  self-support.  The  Dial  is  in  a  way 
the  literary  journal  or  diary  of  the  Transcendental  Movement 
in  America  from  1840  to  1844. 

The  other  undertaking  associated  with  the  Transcendentalists 
is  less  formally  their  own  venture.  This  was  the  Brook  Farm 
Institute  of  Agriculture  and  Education  in  West  Roxbury,  nine 
miles  out  from  Boston.  It  was  financially  the  undertaking  of 
a  small  group  of  stockholders  of  whom  the  Reverend  George 
Ripley  was  the  chief  and  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  the  man  of 
widest  later  fame.  It  was  an  attempt  at  the  start  to  combine 
"plain  living  and  high  thinking,"  the  theory  being  that  the 
group  could  do  their  own  work  and  pursue  their  own  intel 
lectual  life.  During  the  first  three  years,  from  1841  to  1844, 
it  was  carried  on  as  a  quiet  assembling  of  idealists  who  were 
withdrawing  slightly  from  the  hubbub  of  the  world.  Agriculture 
was  supplemented  by  several  other  simple  industries,  a  school 
was  successfully  maintained,  and  the  people  who  lived  there 
were  viewed  and  visited  with  interest  by  many  who  looked  on 
in  sympathetic  amusement.  The  number  of  actual  residents 
never  exceeded  one  hundred  and  fifty.  Of  the  leading  Tran 
scendentalists  Margaret  Fuller  was  the  only  one  to  settle. 
Parker  was  occupied  with  his  multitudinous  duties  at  Boston ; 
Thoreau  attempted  his  own  solution  at  Walden ;  Alcott  was 
at  his  short-lived  and  ill-fated  Fruitlands ;  and  Emerson  stayed 
in  Concord  with  the  comment :  "  I  do  not  wish  to  remove  from 
my  present  prison  to  a  prison  a  little  larger.  ...  I  have  not 
yet  conquered  my  own  house.  It  irks  and  repents  me.  Shall 
I  raise  the  siege  of  this  hen  coop,  and  march  baffled  away  to 
a  pretended  siege  of  Babylon  ?  "  In  the  latter  half  of  its  life 
Brook  Farm  was  drawn  into  the  communistic  movement  which 
the  French  philosopher  Charles  Fourier  had  elaborated,  and 
was  made  the  first  "phalanx"  in  America.  With  this  move 
ment  its  whole  nature  changed,  as  it  became  a  part  of  a  great 
social  project  with  a  mission  to  transform  the  world.  An 


THE  TRANSCENDENTALISTS  197 

ambitious  central  building  was  erected  in  1 846,  and  by  an  irony 
of  fate  the  uninsured  "phalanstery"  was  burned  down  at  the 
very  moment  when  its  completion  was  being  celebrated.  This 
last  financial  burden  broke  the  back  of  the  enterprise,  which 
was  discontinued  in  1847.  It  is  significant  of  Brook  Farm  that 
however  unqualified  a  material  failure  it  was,  it  served  as  a 
gathering  spot  for  a  group  of  idealists  who  never  ceased  to 
recall  their  life  on  the  Farm  as  a  happy  and  fruitful  experience. 


BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

Bibliography 

In  GODDARD,  H.  C.  Studies  in  New  England  Transcendentalism. 
1908.  See  also  Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  546-549- 

History  and  Criticism 

COOKE,  G.  W.  Poets  of  Transcendentalism :  an  Anthology  with  In 
troductory  Essay.  1903. 

EMERSON,  R.  W.  The  Transcendentalist,  in  Nature,  Addresses  and 
Lectures. 

FROTHINGHAM,  O.  B.  Transcendentalism  in  New  England,  a  History. 
1876. 

GODDARD,  H.  C.    Studies  in  New  England  Transcendentalism.    1908. 

PARKER,  THEODORE.    Transcendentalism  :  a  Lecture.    1876.       »— 

Special  Biographies 
Alcott,  A.  B. 

SANBORN,  F.  B.     Bronson  Alcott  at  Alcott   House,  England,  and 

Fruitlands,  New  England,  1842-1844.    1908. 

SANBORN,  F.  B.  and  HARRIS,  WM.  T.  A.  Bronson  Alcott:  his  Life 
and  Philosophy.  1893.  2  vols. 

Emerson,  R.  W. 

See  Book  List,  chap.  xiv. 

Fuller,  Margaret 

EMERSON,  R.  W.,  CHANNING,  W.  H.,  and  CLARKE,  J.  F.   Memoirs  of 

Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli.    1852.    2  vols. 
HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli.   1884. 
HOWE,  JULIA  WARD.    Margaret  Fuller  (Marchesa  Ossoli).   1883. 

Parker,  Theodore 

FROTHINGHAM,  O.  B.    Theodore  Parker:  a  Biography.   1874. 
WEISS,  JOHN.    Life  and  Correspondence  of  Theodore  Parker.   1864. 
2  vols. 


198        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Ripley,  George 

FROTHINGHAM,  O.  B.    George  Ripley.   (A.M.L.  Ser.)   1882. 

Thoreau,  Henry  David 
See  Book  List,  chap.  xiv. 

The  Dial 

The  standard  work  is  by  G.  W.  Cooke.    An  Historical  and  Biographical 

Introduction  to  accompany  The  Dial  as  reprinted  in  Numbers  for 

the  Rowfant  Club,  Cleveland.    1 902.    2  vols. 
The  Dial :  a  Magazine  for  Literature,  Philosophy,  and  Religion,  Vols. 

I-IV.    1840-1844.    Reprinted  by  the  Rowfant  Club  of  Cleveland, 

1900-1903. 

Brook  Farm 

The  standard  work  is  by  Lindsay  Swift.  Brook  Farm :  its  Members, 
Scholars,  and  Visitors.  1900.  (Contains  bibliography.) 

CODMAN,  J.  T.    Brook  Farm:   Historic  and  Personal  Memoirs.    1894. 

COOKE,  G.  W.  John  Sullivan  Dwight,  Brook-Farmer,  Editor,  and  Critic 
of  Music.  1898. 

FROTHINGHAM,  O.  B.    George  Ripley.    1882.  (A.M.L.  Ser.) 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.   The  Blithedale  Romance.    1852. 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.  Passages  from  the  American  Notebooks. 
1868.  2  vols. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  (1803-1882)  was  born  in  Boston. 
He  came  from  old  Puritan  stock,  several  of  his  direct  ancestors 
being  clergymen.  He  was  one  of  eight  children,  of  whom  six 
were  living  when  his  father,  the  Reverend  William  Emerson, 
died  in  1811.  Mr.  Emerson  had  been  so  beloved  by  his 
parishioners  that  they  continued  to  pay  his  salary  for  seven 
years,  and  for  three  years  gave  the  use  of  the  parish  house  to 
the  family.  The  nature  of  these  years  is  presented  in  the  essay 
on  "  Domestic  Life  "  : 

Who  has  not  seen,  and  who  can  see  unmoved,  under  a  low  roof, 
the  eager,  blushing  boys  discharging  as  they  can  their  household 
chores,  and  hastening  into  the  sitting-room  to  the  study  of  to-morrow's 
merciless  lesson,  yet  stealing  time  to  read  one  chapter  more  of  the 
novel  hardly  smuggled  into  the  tolerance  of  father  and  mother  — 
atoning  for  the  same  by  some  passages  of  Plutarch  or  Goldsmith ; 
the  warm  sympathy  with  which  they  kindle  each  other  in  school 
yard,  or  barn,  or  wood-shed,  with  scraps  of  poetry  or  song,  with 
phrases  of  the  last  oration  or  mimicry  of  the  orator;  the  youthful 
criticism,  on  Sunday,  of  the  sermons ;  the  school  declamation,  faith 
fully  rehearsed  at  home.  .  .  .  Ah,  short-sighted  students  of  books, 
of  nature,  and  of  man,  too  happy  could  they  know  their  advan 
tages,  they  pine  for  freedom  from  that  mild  parental  yoke;  they 
sigh  for  fine  clothes,  for  rides,  for  the  theatre,  and  premature 
freedom  and  dissipation  which  others  possess.  Woe  to  them  if 
their  wishes  were  crowned.  The  angels  that  dwell  with  them,  and 
are  weaving  laurels  of  life  for  their  youthful  brows,  are  Toil,  and 
Want,  and  Truth,  and  Mutual  Faith. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  work  for  the  young  Emersons  in 
the  day,  but  the  spirit  of  play  and  playfulness  survived  it  all, 

199 


200        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

as  this  bit  of  verse  shows.    It  was  written  by  Ralph  to  his 
brother  Edward. 

So  erst  two  brethren  climb'd  the  cloud-capp  'd  hill, 
Ill-fated  Jack,  and  long-lamented  Jill, 
Snatched  from  the  crystal  font  its  lucid  store, 
And  in  full  pails  the  precious  treasure  bore. 
But  ah,  by  dull  forgetfulness  oppress'd 
(Forgive  me,  Edward)  I  Ve  forgot  the  rest. 

In  due  time  Emerson  went  to  Harvard,  entering  the  class 
of  1821.  Here  he  earned  part  of  his  expenses  and  profited 
by  scholarships,  which  must  have  been  given  him  more  on 
account  of  his  character  than  because  of  his  actual  performance 
as  a  student,  for  he  stood  only  in  the  middle  of  his  class.  He 
was  almost  hopelessly  weak  in  mathematics,  but  he  won  three 
prizes  in  essay- writing  and  declamation.  He  was  a  regular 
member  of  one  of  the  debating  societies,  crossing  swords  with 
his  opponents  on  the  vague  and  impossible  subjects  which 
lure  the  minds  of  youth.  His  appointment  as  class  poet  at 
graduation  argues  no  special  distinction,  for  it  was  conferred 
on  him  after  seven  others  had  refused  it.  All  the  while,  how 
ever,  his  mind  had  been  active,  and  he  came  out  from  college 
with  the  fruits  of  a  great  amount  of  good  reading  which  had 
doubtless  somewhat  distracted  him  from  the  assigned  work. 
Emerson's  experience  at  college  should  not  be  confused  with 
that  of  many  budding  geniuses  who  showed  their  originality 
by  mere  eccentricity.  With  Emerson,  as  with  Hawthorne  and 
Thoreau  too,  the  independence  appeared  simply  in  his  choosing 
the  things  at  which  he  should  do  his  hardest  work.  He  was 
full  of  ambition.  An  entry  in  the  Journal  of  1822  proves  that 
at  this  age  he  was  more  like  the  Puritan  Milton  than  the 
care-free  Cooper :  "  In  twelve  days  I  shall  be  nineteen  years 
old,  which  I  count  a  miserable  thing.  Has  any  other  educated 
person  lived  so  many  years  and  lost  so  many  days  ? "  He 
blamed  himself  for  dreaming  of  greatness  and  doing  little  to 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  201 

achieve  it,  but  he  decided  not  yet  to  give  up  hope  of  belong 
ing  to  the  "  family  of  giant  minds."  Already,  too,  he  was  in 
thought  joining  his  own  future  with  the  future  of  the  country 
in  such  jottings  as  these.  "  Let  those  who  would  pluck  the 
lot  of  immortality  from  Fate's  urn,  look  well  to  the  future  of 
America."  "  To  America,  therefore,  monarchs  look  with 
apprehension  and  the  people  with  hope."  If  his  countrymen 
could  boast  no  great  accomplishment  in  the  arts,  "  We  have 
a  government  and  a  national  spirit  that  is  better  than  persons 
or  histories."  The  judges  of  his  own  future  utterances  were 
to  be  a  nation  of  free  minds,  "  for  in  America  we  have 
plucked  down  Fortune  and  set  up  Nature  in  his  room." 
These  comments,  of  course,  reveal  the  sentiment  and  the 
lofty  rhetoric  of  the  commencement  orator,  for  they  were  all 
written  before  he  was  twenty-two.  In  later  years  he  wrote 
more  simply  and  less  excitedly,  but  he  never  forgot  that  his 
own  life  was  always  part  of  the  life  of  the  nation. 

The  five  years  just  after  graduation  were  not  encouraging. 
He  taught  in  his  brother's  school  for  a  while,  but  loathed  it 
because  he  taught  so  badly.  Ill-health  harassed  him.  While 
he  was  studying  in  the  Divinity  School  his  eyes  failed  him, 
so  that  he  was  excused  from  the  regular  examinations  at  the 
end.  And  a  month  after  he  was  admitted  to  the  ministry  his 
doctor  advised  him  to  spend  the  winter  in  the  South.  It  was 
not  until  1829,  when  he  was  twenty-six  years  old,  that  he 
was  settled  in  a  pastorate.  Then  the  future  seemed  assured 
for  him.  The  church  was  an  old  and  respected  one,  the 
congregation  made  up  of  "  desirable  "  people.  If  the  young 
preacher  was  able  to  prepare  acceptable  sermons  and  make 
friends  among  his  parishioners,  he  could  be  sure  of  a  perma 
nent  and  dignified  position  in  his  native  city.  But  although 
the  flock  were  perfectly  satisfied  with  their  shepherd,  in  three 
years  he  resigned.  He  had  found  that  certain  of  the  forms 
of  church  worship  embarrassed  him  because  he  could  not 
always  enter  into  the  spirit  of  them.  Sometimes  when  the 


202        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

moment  for  the  "  long  prayer  "  came,  he  did  not  feel  moved 
to  utter  it,  and  he  felt  that  to  "  deliver "  it  as  a  piece  of 
elocution  was  dishonest  and  irreverent.  Administering  the 
holy  communion  troubled  him  still  more,  because  he  felt 
afraid  that  to  the  literal  Yankee  mind  this  symbolical  ceremony 
was  either  meaningless  or  tinged  with  superstition.  So  he  ex 
pressed  his  honest  doubts  to  his  congregation,  explaining  that 
if  these  features  of  worship  were  necessary  he  could  no  longer 
continue  to  be  their  pastor,  and  they  reluctantly  let  him  go. 

Two  years  were  yet  to  pass  in  the  preparatory  stage  of 
Emerson's  life.  For  the  first  seven  months  of  1833  he  was 
abroad,  traveling  slowly  from  Italy  up  to  England.  In  reading 
his  daily  comments  on  what  he  saw,  one  finds  no  trace  of  the 
eager  zest  for  the  novelties  of  travel  enjoyed  by  Irving  and 
Cooper ;  he  seems  rather  to  have  gone  through  with  the  tour 
as  a  sober  and  conscientious  process  of  education.  His  most 
vivid  experiences  were  not  in  seeing  places  but  in  meeting 
English  authors,  and  with  one  of  these,  Thomas  Carlyle,  he 
made  the  beginning  of  a  lifelong  friendship.  It  was  like 
Emerson  to  be  especially  attracted  to  Carlyle,  who  was  almost 
unknown  at  the  time,  to  seek  him  out  on  his  lonely  Scotch 
farm,  and  to  feel  a  deeper  sympathy  and  admiration  for  him 
than  for  famous  men  like  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  and 
De  Quincey.  No  single  man  and  no  amount  of  public  opinion 
ever  made  up  this  young  American's  mind  for  him.  When, 
after  a  year  of  preaching  and  lecturing  in  America  he  went 
'late  in  1834  to  settle  in  Concord,  the  richest  memory  he 
treasured  from  his  travel  was  the  founding  of  this  new  com 
panionship.  In  the  fabric  of  the  long  life  that  remained  to 
him  no  two  threads  are  more  important  than  those  of  Concord 
and  Carlyle  —  the  place  he  loved  most  and  the  greatest  of 
his  friends. 

Rightly  considered,  these  thirty-one  years  are  a  piece  not 
only  of  Emerson's  life ;  they  are  a  piece  of  American  history. 
They  exhibit  the  life  in  Boston  of  a  boy  and  young  man  with 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  203 


a  fine  Puritan  inheritance.  Among  all  the  traits  which  came 
down  to  him  from  the  past,  none  were  more  dominant  than 
his  rectitude  and  his  independence.  Like  the  boys  of  earliest 
Pilgrim  families,  he  was  trained  at  home  in  "the  uses  of 
adversity,"  given  a  careful  schooling,  and  sent  to  college 
to  be  prepared  for  the  ministry.  His  mind,  like  that  of  his 
ancestors,  "derived  a  peculiar  character  from  the  daily  con 
templation  of  superior  beings  and  eternal  interests  "  ;  but  like 
some  of  the  strongest  of  these  —  like  Roger  Williams,  for 
example  (p.  1 1),  he  was  bent  on  arriving  at  his  own  conclusions. 
Fortunately  men  were  no  longer  persecuted  for  their  religious 
beliefs  in  the  old  savage  ways.  Emerson's  withdrawal  from  the 
pulpit  did  not  forfeit  him  the  love  of  the  people  whom  he  had 
been  serving.  Though  men  could  still  feel  bitterly  on  the  sub 
ject  of  religious  differences,  the  new  century  was  more  generous 
than  the  old  had  been.  Travel  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and 
in  Europe  enriched  his  knowledge  of  the  world,  but  only  deep 
ened  his  love  of  the  home  region ;  and  here  as  a  full-grown  man 
he  settled  down  with  his  books  and  among  an  increasing  circle 
of  congenial  friends  to  think  about  life  and  to  record  what  he 
had  thought. 

It  was  therefore  no  accident  that  in  three  successive  years 
-^-1836,  1837,  and  1838  —  Emerson  made  three  statements  in 
summary  of  his  chief  ideas  on  men  and  things.  In  all  of 
them  there  was  a  central  thought  —  that  life  had  become  too 
much  a  matter  of  unconsidered  routine  and  that  people  must 
stop  long  enough  to  make  up  their  minds  what  it  was  all 
about.  He  offered  no  "  system."  He  pleaded  only  that  people 
begin  to  think  again,  so  that  if  they  followed  in  the  footsteps 
of  their  fathers  they  should  do  so  with  their  eyes  open,  or 
if  they  decided  to  strike  off  into  new  paths  they  should  not 
be  blind  men  led  by  the  blind. 

The  first  of  the  trio1  was  the  essay  on  "Nature,"  published 
as  a  slender  little  book  in  1836.  He  opened  with  an  appeal 

1  Found  in  the  volume  "  Nature,  Addresses  and  Lectures." 


204        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

for  his  readers  to  look  at  the  wonders  around  them.  "  If  the 
stars  should  appear  but  one  night  in  a  thousand  years,  how 
would  men  believe  and  adore ;  and  preserve  for  many  genera 
tions  the  remembrance  of  the  city  of  God  which  had  been 
shown."  He  went  on  to  discuss  nature  as  Commodity,  or 
source  of  all  the  things  man  may  use  or  own ;  as  Beauty, 
or  source  of  delight  to  body,  spirit,  and  mind ;  as  Language, 
or  source  of  the  images  and  comparisons  by  means  of  which 
man  attempts  to  express  abstract  ideas ;  and  as  a  Discipline, 
or  source  of  training  to  the  intellect  in  understanding  nature's 
laws  and  to  the  moral  sense  in  obeying  and  interpreting 
them.  In  all  these  respects  he  contended  that  the  man  who 
will  truly  understand  nature  must  combine  the  exactness  of 
observation  which  belongs  to  science  with  the  reverence 
of  feeling  which  is  the  basis  of  religion. 

No  man  ever  prayed  heartily  without  learning  something^  But 
when  a  faithful  thinker,  resolute  to  detach  every  object  from  personal 
relations,  and  see  it  in  the  light  of  thought,  shall,  at  the  same  time, 
kindle  science  with  the  fire  of  the  holiest  affections,  then  will  God  go 
forth  anew  into  the  creation.  ...  So  shall  we  come  to  look  at  the 
world  with  new  eyes.  .  .  .  The  kingdom  of  man  over  nature,  which 
cometh  not  with  observation,  —  a  dominion  such  as  now  is  beyond  his 
dream  of  God,  —  he  shall  enter  into  without  more  wonder  than  the 
blind  man  feels  who  is  gradually  restored  to  perfect  sight. 

Such  was  Emerson's  gospel  of  beauty.  It  did  not  attract  any 
wide  attention ;  but  across  the  sea  it  was  hailed  with  admira 
tion  by  Carlyle,  who  showed  it  to  his  friends,  a'nd  it  attracted 
the  attention  of  Harvard  College,  so  that  Emerson  was  invited 
kto  speak  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  society  in  the  following 
summer. 

The  result  of  this  invitation  was  his  famous  address  on 

"The  American   Scholar."    It  was  an  appeal  this  time  for 

1  independence  in  the  realm  of  the  intellect.    It  has  frequently 

been   described  as  the   American   Declaration  of   Intellectual 

Independence ;  and  the  comparison   to  Jefferson's   document 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  205 

stands  in  the  fact  that  it  did  not  contain  a  new  idea  in  America, 
but  that  it  stated  memorably  what  had  been  uttered  again  and 
again  by  other  Americans.  "  Our  day  of  dependence,  our 
long  apprenticeship  to  the  learning  of  other  lands,  draws  to 
a  close.  The  millions  that  around  us  are  rushing  into  life, 
cannot  always  be  fed  on  the  sere  remains  of  foreign  harvests." 
To  make  his  point,  Emerson  held  that  the  American  scholar 
must  not  continue  to  be  "a  delegated  intellect "  but  must 
become  Man  Thinking.  Unlike  most  of  the  later  essays  the 
address  is  clear  and  orderly  in  structure.  After  a  brief  intro 
duction  the  scholar  is  discussed  in  terms  of  the  chief  influences 
which  surround  him.  The  first  is  nature,  and  this  section  is 
brief  because  of  its  full  treatment  in  the  essay  of  the  preceding 
year.  The  second  is  the  spirit  of  the  past  as  it  is  best 
recorded  in  books.  Emerson  accepted  without  qualification 
the  books  which  contain  the  story  of  history  and  the  explana 
tion  of  exact  science.  Yet,  as  science  is  ever  advancing  and 
the  interpretations  of  history  are  continually  changing,  he 
might  have  said  of  these  what  he  said  of  books  which  attempt 
to  explain  life  :  "  Each  age,  it  is  found,  must  write  its  own 
books ;  or  rather,  each  generation  for  the  next  succeeding. 
The  books  of  an  older  period  will  not  fit  this."  The  third 
great  influence  on  the  scholar  is  participation  in  life. 

Only  so  much  do  I  know  as  I  have  lived.  ...  If  it  were  only  for 
a  vocabulary,  the  scholar  would  be  covetous  of  action.  Life  is  our 
dictionary.  Years  are  well  spent  in  country  labors ;  in  town ;  in  the 
insight  into  trades  and  manufactures  ;  in  frank  intercourse  with  many 
men  and  women ;  in  science ;  in  art ;  to  the  one  end  of  mastering  in 
all  their  facts  a  language  by  which  to  illustrate  and  embody  our 
perceptions.  .  .  .  Life  lies  behind  us  as  the  quarry  from  whence  we 
get  tiles  and  copestones  for  the  masonry  of  to-day. 

With  these  influences  affecting  him  the  scholar  must  perform 
his  duties  without  thought  of  reward  in  money  or  praise.  He 
must  feel  all  confidence  in  himself.  "  Let  him  not  quit  his 
belief  that  a  popgun  is  a  popgun,  though  the  ancient  and 


206        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

honorable  of  the  earth  affirm  it  to  be  the  crack  of  doom." 
Signs  of  the  interest  that  the  scholar  is  showing  in  life 
(as  a  combination  of  all  sorts  of  people  with  common  interests 
but  diverse  fortunes)  comfort  Emerson.  These  will  redeem 
scholarship.  And  so  he  concludes  to  the  young  college  men  : 

We  will  walk  on  our  own  feet ;  we  will  work  with  our  own  hands  ; 
we  will  speak  our  own  minds.  The  study  of  letters  shall  be  no  longer 
a  name  for  pity,  for  doubt,  and  for  sensual  indulgence.  The  dread  of 
man  and  the  love  of  man  shall  be  a  wall  of  defence  and  a  wreath  of  joy 
around  all.  A  nation  of  men  will  for  the  first  time  exist,  because  each 
believes  himself  inspired  by  the  divine  soul  which  also  inspires  all  men. 

This  address  was  inspiring  to  all  who  heard  it.  The  young 
scholars  went  out  with  a  new  feeling  for  the  dignity  of  learn 
ing  as  an  equipment  toward  leadership,  and  the  older  Harvard 
professors  felt  in  Emerson's  words  some  reward  for  a  college 
that  had  helped  to  produce  such  a  man  as  he.  An  immediate 
consequence  of  the  address  was  a  further  invitation  to  speak 
the  next  year  before  the  students  of  the  Divinity  School ;  and 
in  1838  he  talked  in  a  similar  vein  to  the  budding  clergymen. 
This  address  in  a  way  rounded  out  his  "philosophy"  by  applying 
the  rule  of  self-reliance  to  the  third  aspect  of  man's  life ;  after 
beauty  in  "Nature"  and  truth  in  "The  American  Scholar" 
came  the  moral  sense  in  "  The  Divinity  School  Address."  He 
started,  as  in  the  former  two,  with  a  kind  of  prose  poem  on 
the  wonder  of  life.  He  went  on  to  speak  of  the  need  of  reli 
gion  that  was  fresh,  vivid,  and  personal.  Then  he  referred  to 
the  defects  of  "historical  Christianity,"  which  was  his  name 
for  the  church  embodiment  of  Christ's  teaching.  These,  in  his 
opinion,  were  two  :  that  modern  Christianity  was  a  system  of 
belief  very  different  from  the  simple  teachings  of  Jesus  and 
that  this  system  was  dangerous  because  it  had  become  fixed. 
"  Men  have  come  to  speak  of  the  revelation  as  somewhat  long 
ago  given  and  done,  as  if  God  were  dead."  The  remedy  for 
these  defects  was  the  same  as  for  the  deadened  attitude  toward 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  207 

Nature  and  Truth  —  that  man  should  be  self-reliant.  To  the 
young  divinity  student  he  declared,  "Yourself  a  newborn  bard 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  cast  behind  you  all  conformity,  and  acquaint 
men  at  first  hand  with  Deity."  Christianity  has  given  mankind 

two  great  gifts :  the  Sabbath  and  the  institution  of  preaching. 

§ 
What  hinders  that  now,  everywhere,  in  pulpits,  in  lecture-rooms, 

in  houses,  in  fields,  wherever  the  invitation  of  men  or  your  own  occa 
sions  lead  you,  yoi|  speak  the  very  truth,  as  your  life  and  conscience 
teach  it,  and  cheer  the  waiting,  fainting  hearts  of  men  with  new  hope 
and  revelation  ? 

Although  the  Harvard  authorities  might  have  foreseen  that 
he  would  speak  as  frankly  as  this,  they  were  shocked  when  he 
presumed  to  advocate  independence  in  religion.  Two  hundred 
years  earlier  he  would  have  been  banished  from  Massachusetts 
for  saying  less.  As  it  was,  however,  Harvard  closed  its  lecture 
rooms  to  him  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and  the  conservative 
clergy  expressed  their  outraged  feelings  in  speech  and  print. 
Emerson  was  undisturbed.  To  one  of  them,  his  friend  the 
Reverend  Henry  Ware,  he  wrote  a  seldom-quoted  letter  that 
completely  represents  him.  It  deserves  careful  study. 

Concord,  October  8,  1838. 
My  dear  Sir :  — 

I  ought  sooner  to  have  acknowledged  your  kind  letter  of  last  week, 
and  the  Sermon  it  accompanied.  The  latter  was  right  manly  and 
noble.  The  Sermon,  too,  I  have  read  with  great  attention.  If  it 
assails  any  doctrines  of  mine  —  perhaps  I  am  not  so  quick  to  see  it 
as  writers  generally  —  certainly  I  did  not  feel  any  disposition  to  depart 
from  my  habitual  contentment,  that  you  should  say  your  thought, 
whilst  I  say  mine. 

I  believe  I  must  tell  you  what  I  think  of  my  new  position.  It 
strikes  me  very  oddly,  that  good  and  wise  men  at  Cambridge  and 
Boston  should  think  of  raising  me  into  an  object  of  criticism.  I  have 
always  been  —  from  my  very  incapacity  of  methodical  writing  —  "a 
chartered  libertine  "  free  to  worship  and  free  to  rail,  —  lucky  when  I 
could  make  myself  understood,  but  never  esteemed  near  enough  to 
the  institution  and  mind  of  society  to  deserve  the  notice  of  the  masters 


208        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  literature  and  religion.  I  have  appreciated  fully  the  advantages  of 
my  position ;  for  I  well  know,  that  there  is  no  scholar  less  willing  or 
less  able  to  be  a  polemic.  I  could  not  give  account  of  myself,  if  chal 
lenged.  I  could  not  possibly  give  you  one  of  the  "  arguments  "  you 
cruelly  hint  at,  on  which  any  doctrine  of  mine  stands.  For  I  do  not 
know  what  arguments  mean,  in  reference  to  any  expression  of  thought. 
I  delight  in  telling  what  I  think ;  but  if  you  ask  me  how  I  dare  say 
so,  or,  why  it  is  so,  I  am  the  most  helpless  of  mortal  men.  I  do  not 
even  see,  that  either  of  these  questions  admits  of  an  answer.  So  that, 
in  the  present  droll  posture  of  my  affairs,  when  I  see  myself  suddenly 
raised  into  the  importance  of  a  heretic,  I  am  very  uneasy  when  I 
advert  to  the  supposed  duties  of  such  a  personage,  who  is  to  make 
good  his  thesis  against  all  comers. 

I  certainly  shall  do  no  such  thing.  I  shall  read  what  you  and  other 
good  men  write,  as  I  have  always  done,  —  glad  when  you  speak  my 
thoughts,  and  skipping  the  page  that  has  nothing  for  me.  I  shall  go 
on,  just  as  before,  seeing  whatever  I  can,  and  telling  what  I  see ; 
and,  I  suppose,  with  the  same  fortune  that  has  hitherto  attended  me ; 
the  joy  of  finding,  that  my  abler  and  better  brother^,  who  work  with 
the  sympathy  of  society,  loving  and  beloved,  do  now  and  then  unex 
pectedly  confirm  my  perceptions,  and  find  my  nonsense  is  only  their 
own  thought  in  motley. 

And  so  I  am, 

Your  affectionate  servant, 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

Thus  far  it  is  clear  that  Emerson's  message  to  the  world 
was  almost  unqualifiedly  personal :  an  attempt  to  shake  men 
out  of  their  lazy  ways  of  drifting  with  the  current  into  active 
swimming  —  with  the  current  if  they  thought  best,  but  usually 
against  it.  The  whole  problem  was  summarized  in  his  single 
defiant  essay  on  "  Self- Reliance, "  l —  defiant  because  in  this 
protest  he  was  almost  entirely  concerned  with  telling  men  what 
they  should  not  do.  They  should  not  pray,  not  be  consistent, 
not  travel,  not  imitate,  not  conform  to  society ;  but  should  be 
Godlike,  independent,  searching  their  own  hearts,  and  behaving 
in  accord  with  the  truth  they  found  there.  It  is  an  anarchy  he 

1  "  Self-Reliance  "  Essays,  First  Series. 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  209 

was  preaching,  an  elevated  lawlessness.  And  the  first  reaction 
to  such  teaching  is  to  ask  with  shocked  disapproval,  "  What 
would  happen  to  the  world  if  all  men  followed  his  advice  ?  " 
There  are  two  very  simple  answers.  The  first  is  that  if  all  men 
followed  Emerson's  advice,  completely  as  he  gave  it,  the  world 
would  be  peopled  with  saints,  for  what  he  asked  was  that  men 
should  disregard  the  laws  of  society  only  that  they  might  better 
observe  the  laws  of  God.  And  the  second  answer  is  that  such  a 
query  sets  an  impossible  condition,  for  the  pressure  of  custom 
is  so  strong  and  the  human  inclination  to  do  as  others  do  is  so 
prevailing  that  counsel  like  Emerson's  will  never  be  adopted, 
at  the  most,  by  more  than  a  very  small  and  courageous  minority. 
One  fact  to  keep  in  mind  in  reading  all  Emerson  is  that 
he  regularly  expresses  himself  in  emphatic  terms.  In  conse 
quence,  what  he  says  in  one  mood  he  is  likely  in  another  to 
gainsay,  and  in  a  third,  though  without  any  deliberate  intention 
to  defend  himself,  he  may  reconcile  the  apparent  contradiction. 
He  simply  follows  out  his  own  ideas  on  consistency. 

But  why  should  you  keep  your  head  over  your  shoulder?  Why  drag 
about  this  corpse  of  your  memory,  lest  you  contradict  somewhat  you 
have  stated  in  this  or  that  public  place  ?  Suppose  you  should  contra 
dict  yourself ;  what  then  ?  .  .  .  A  foolish  consistency  is  the  hobgoblin 
of  little  minds,  adored  by  little  statesmen  and  philosophers  and  divines. 

This  sort  of  balancing  of  his  views  of  independence  is  to  be 
found  in  an  essay  of  thirty  years  later  on  "Society  and  Solitude." 
The  first  two  thirds  of  this  seem  to  be  quite  as  unqualified  as      « 
anything  in  the  early  declarations.    He  quotes   Swedenborg :       < 
"  There  are  angels  who  do  not  live  consociated,  but  separate, 
house  and  house ;  these  dwell  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  because     * 
they  are  the  best  of  angels."    He  says  for  himself  :  "We  pray      j 
to  be  conventional.    But  the  wary  Heaven  takes  care  you  shall    \^ 
not  be,  if  there  is  anything  good  in  you."    "  We  sit  and  muse, 
and  are  serene  and  complete  ;  but  the  moment  we  meet  with 
anybody,  each  becomes  a  fraction."    Then,  however,  comes  the 


210        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

corrective  note  :  "  But  this  banishment  to  the  rocks  and  echoes 
no  metaphysics  can  make  right  or  tolerable.  This  result  is  so 
against  nature,  such  a  half  view,  that  it  must  be  corrected  by 
a  common  sense  and  experience."  In  the  earlier  essays  and 
addresses  Emerson  had  said  repeatedly  that  a  man's  education 
could  not  be  complete  unless  it  included  contact  with  people, 
and  in  this  essay  he  came  round  to  the  reverse  of  the  medal, 
that  no  man  could  fully  express  himself  who  was  not  useful  to 
his  fellows.  "Society  cannot  do  without  cultivated  men."  This 
idea  was,  of  course,  always  in  Emerson's  mind,  but  it  was  in 
the  later  years,  after  he  himself  had  seen  more  and  more  of 
life,  that  he  expressed  it  in  definite  assertions  instead  of  taking 
it  for  granted  as  something  the  wise  man  would  assume.  The 
concluding  paragraph  in  this  essay  not  only  sums  up  Emerson's 
views  on  society  and  solitude  but  illustrates  the  kind  of  balance 
which  he  often  strikes  between  statements  which  little  minds 
could  erect  into  hobgoblins  of  inconsistency : 

Here  again,  as  so  often,  Nature  delights  to  put  us  between  extreme 
antagonisms,  and  our  safety  is  in  the  skill  with  which  we  keep  the 
diagonal  line.  Solitude  is  impracticable,  and  society  fatal.  We  must 
keep  our  head  in  the  one  and  our  hands  in  the  other.  The  conditions 
are  met,  if  we  keep  our  independence,  yet  do  not  lose  our  sympathy. 
These  wonderful  horses  need  to  be  driven  by  fine  hands.  We  require 
such  a  solitude  as  shall  hold  us  to  its  revelations  when  we  are  in  the 
street  and  in  palaces ;  for  most  men  are  cowed  in  society,  and  say 
good  things  to  you  in  private,  but  will  not  stand  to  them  in  public. 
But  let  us  not  be  the  victims  of  words.  Society  and  solitude  are  decep 
tive  names.  It  is  not  the  circumstance  of  seeing  more  or  fewer  people, 
but  the  readiness  of  sympathy  that  imports ;  and  a  sound  mind  will 
derive  its  principles  from  insight,  with  ever  a  purer  ascent  to  the 
sufficient  and  absolute  right,  and  will  accept  society  as  the  natural 
element  in  which  they  are  to  be  applied. 

Throughout  the  most  fruitful  years  of  Emerson's  life  he 
lived  quietly  in  Concord,  writing  without  hurry  in  the  morn 
ings,  walking  and  talking  with  his  friends  who  lived  there  and 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  211 

with  the  increasing  number  of  more  and  less  distinguished  men 
who  came  to  receive  his  inspiration.  But  three  winter  months 
of  each  year  he  gave  to  lecturing,  giving  frequent  series  in 
New  York  and  Boston  and  going  out  into  the  West  as  far  as 
Wisconsin  jind  Missouri.  In  these  months,  as  a  combined 
prophet  and  man  of  business,  he  earned  a  fair  share  of  his 
income  and  exerted  his  widest  influence.  What  he  meant  to 
his  auditors  has  been  best  said  by  Lowell  in  his  brief  essay 
on  "  Emerson  the  Lecturer."  Recalling  the  days  when  he 
was  a  college  student,  sixteen  years  younger  than  Emerson, 
Lowell  wrote : 

We  used  to  walk  in  from  the  country  [Cambridge,  four  miles  out 
from  Boston]  to  the  Masonic  Temple  (I  think  it  was)  through  the 
crisp  winter  night,  and  listen  to  that  thrilling  voice  of  his,  so  charged 
with  subtle  meaning  and  subtle  music,  as  shipwrecked  men  on  a  raft 
to  the  hail  of  a  ship  that  came  with  unhoped-for  food  and  rescue.  .  .  . 
And  who  that  saw  the  audience  will  ever  forget  it,  where  everyone 
still  capable  of  fire,  or  longing  to  renew  in  himself  the  half-forgotten 
sense  of  it,  was  gathered  ?  .  .  .  I  hear  again  that  rustle  of  sensation, 
as  they  turned  to  exchange  glances  over  some  pithier  thought,  some 
keener  flash  of  that  humor  which  always  played  about  the  horizon  of 
his  mind  like  heat-lightning.  ...  To  some  of  us  that  long-past  ex 
perience  remains  as  the  most  marvellous  and  fruitful  we  have  ever 
had.  .  .  .  Did  they  say  he  was  disconnected  ?  So  were  the  stars,  that 
seemed  larger  to  our  eyes,  as  we  walked  homeward  with  prouder  stride 
over  the  creaking  snow.  And  were  not  they  knit  together  by  a  higher 
logic  than  our  mere  senses  could  master  ?  Were  we  enthusiasts  ? 
I  hope  and  believe  we  were,  and  am  thankful  to  the  man  who  made 
us  worth  something  for  once  in  our  lives.  If  asked  what  was  left? 
what  we  carried  home  ?  we  should  not  have  been  careful  for  an 
answer.  It  would  have  been  enough  if  we  had  said  that  something 
beautiful  had  passed  that  way. 

If  people  were  puzzled  to  follow  the  drift  of  Emerson's 
lectures  —  and  they  often  were  —  it  was  because  most  of  them 
were  so  vague  in  outline.  They  literally  did  drift.  There  were 
two  or  three  explanations  for  this  defect.  One  was  that 


212        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Emerson  seldom  set  himself  the  task  of  "composing"  a  com 
plete  essay.  His  method  of  writing  was  to  put  down  in  his 
morning  hours  at  the  desk  the  ideas  that  came  to  him.  As 
thoughts  on  subjects  dear  to  him  flitted  through  his  mind  he 
captured  some  of  them  as  they  passed.  These  were  related,  — 
like  the  moon  and  the  tides  and  the  best  times  for  digging 
clams, — but  when  he  assembled  various  paragraphs  into  a  lecture 
he  took  no  pains  to  establish  "theme  coherence"  by  explaining 
the  connections  that  were  quite  clear  in  his  own  mind.  It  hap 
pened  further,  as  the  years  went  on,  that  in  making  up  a  new 
discourse  he  would  select  paragraphs  from  earlier  manuscripts, 
relying  on  them  to  hang  together  with  a  confidence  that  was 
sometimes  misplaced.  And  auditors  of  his  lectures  in  the  last 
years  recall  how,  as  he  passed  from  one  page  to  the  next,  a 
look  of  doubt  and  slight  amusement  would  sometimes  confess 
without  apology  to  an  utter  lack  of  connection  even  between 
the  parts  of  a  sentence. 

In  his  sentences  and  his  choice  of  words,  however,  there 
were  perfect  simplicity  and  clearness.  Here  is  a  passage  to  illus 
trate,  drawn  by  the  simplest  of  methods  —  opening  the  first 
volume  of  Emerson  at  hand  and  taking  the  first  paragraph. 
It  happens  to  be  in  the  essay  on  "  Compensation." 

Commit  a  crime,  and  the  earth  is  made  of  glass.  Commit  a  crime, 
and  it  seems  as  if  a  coat  of  snow  fell  on  the  ground,  such  as  reveals 
in  the  wood  the  track  of  every  partridge  and  fox  and  squirrel  and 
mole.  You  cannot  recall  the  spoken  word,  you  cannot  wipe  out  the 
foot-track,  you  cannot  draw  up  the  ladder,  so  as  to  leave  no  inlet 
or  clew.  Some  damning  circumstance  always  transpires.  The  laws 
and  substances  of  nature  —  water,  snow,  wind,  gravitation  —  become 
penalties  to  the  thief. 

In  this  passage  of  ninety  words  more  than  seventy  are  words 
of  one  syllable,  and  only  one  of  the  other  eighteen — transpires 
—  can  baffle  the  reader  or  listener  even  for  a  moment.  The 
general  idea  in  Emerson's  mind  is  ex'pressed  by  a  series  of 
definite  and  picturesque  comparisons.  "  Be  sure  your  sin  will 
find  you  out,"  he  said.  "  You  commit  the  wicked  deed,  creep, 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  213 

dodge,  run  away,  come  to  your  hiding  place,  climb  the  ladder, 
and  hope  for  escape.  But  nature  or  God  —  has  laid  a  trap  for 
you.  Your  footprints  are  on  the  new-fallen  snow ;  human  eyes 
follow  them  to  the  tell-tale  ladder  leading  to  your  window ; 
and  you  are  caught.  The  laws  of  the  universe  have  combined 
against  you  in  the  snowfall,  the  impress  of  your  feet,  and  the 
weight  of  the  ladder  which  you  could  not  raise." 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  great  difference  in  the  language  used 
by  Emerson  and  that  in  the  paraphrase,  but  in  the  way  the 
sentences  are  put  together  Emerson's  method  of  composing 
is  once  more  illustrated.  Emerson  suggests ;  the  paraphrase 
explains.  Emerson  assumes  that  the  reader  is  alert  and  know 
ing  ;  the  paraphraser,  that  he  is  a  little  inattentive  and  a  little 
dull.  Lowell  again  has  summed  up  the  whole  matter  :  "  A  dic 
tion  at  once  so  rich  and  homely  as  his  I  know  not  where  to 
match  in  these  days  of  writing  by  the  page ;  it  is  like  home 
spun  cloth-of-gold.  The  many  cannot  miss  the  meaning,  and 
only  the  few  can  find  it."  This  is  another  way  of  saying, 
"Anybody  can  understand  him  sentence  by  sentence,  but  the 
wiser  the  reader  the  more  he  can  understand  of  the  meaning 
as  a  whole."  What  is  said  of  his  prose  applies  in  still  greater 
degree  to  his  poetry,  as  it  does  to  all  real  poetry. 

About  his  poetry,  however,  because  common  agreement  has 
made  poetry  so  much  more  dependent  upon  form  and  structure 
than  prose,  there  has  been  wide  disagreement,  swinging  all  the 
way  from  the  strictures  of  Matthew  Arnold  to  the  unqualified 
praise  of  George  Edward  Woodberry.  On  the  whole,  a  good 
deal  of  the  argument  has  been  beside  the  mark  because  it  has 
been  a  condemnation  of  Emerson  for  writing  in  an  unusual 
fashion  rather  than  an  appraisal  of  the  actual  value  of  his 
verse.  In  "  Merlin  "  Emerson  stated  his  poetic  thesis  and  in 
a  measure  threw  out  his  challenge : 

Thy  trivial  harp  will  never  please 

Or  fill  my  craving  ear ; 

Its  chords  should  ring  as  blows  the  breeze, 

Free,  peremptory,  clear. 


214        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

No  jingling  serenader's  art, 

Nor  tinkle  of  piano  strings, 

Can  make  the  wild  blood  start 

In  its  mystic  springs. 

The  kingly  bard 

Must  smite  the  chords  rudely  and  hard, 

As  with  hammer  or  with  mace.  .  .  . 

The  natural  result  was  that  there  is  the  closest  of  resem 
blances  between  much  of  Emerson's  verse  and  some  of  his  most 
elevated  prose.  His  prose  frequently  contains  poetic  flashes ; 
his  verse  not  seldom  is  spirited  prose  both  in  form  and  sub 
stance.  In  his  Journal  he  sometimes  wrote  in  prose  form  what 
with  a  very  few  changes  he  transcribed  into  verse,  and  in  his 
essays  there  are  many  passages  which  are  closely  paralleled  in 
his  poems.1  They  are  the  poems  of  a  philosopher  whose  first 
concern  is  with  truth  and  whose  truth  is  all-embracing.  Emerson 
wrote  no  narratives,  no  dramatic  poems,  no  formal  odes,  almost 
no  poems  for  special  occasions,  and  when  he  did  write  such 
as  the  "  Concord  Hymn  "  he  made  the  occasion  radiate  out 
into  all  time  and  space  when  the  embattled  farmers  "  fired  the 
shot  heard  round  the  world."  The  utter  compactness  and 
simplicity  of  his  verse  made  it  at  times  not  only  rugged  but 
difficult  of  understanding.  "  Brahma,"  which  bewildered  many 
of  its  first  readers,  is  hard  to  understand  only  so  long  as  one 
fails  to  realize  that  God  is  the  speaker  of  the  stanzas.  The 
poems  are  like  Bacon's  essays  in  their  meatiness  and  unadorn- 
ment.  Had  they  been  more  strikingly  different  from  the 
ordinary  measures  they  would  probably  have  been  both  blamed 

1  Such  abstruse  poems  as  the  following  are  really  expounded  in  corre 
sponding  essays  :  "  Written  in  Naples  "  and  "  Written  in  Rome  " —  the  essay 
on  "History";  "Each  and  All"  —  the  essay  on  "Compensation";  "The 
Problem"  —  the  essays  on  "Art"  and  "Compensation";  "Merlin"  —  the 
essay  on  "  The  Poet  " ;  "  The  World-Soul  "  —  the  essays  on  "  Nominalist  and 
Realist"  and  "The  Over-Soul";  "  Hamatreya  " — the  essay  on  "Compensa 
tion  "  ;  "  Musketaquid  "  —  the  essay  on  "  Nature  "  ;  "  fitienne  de  la  Boece  "  — 
the  essay  on  "Friendship";  "Brahma"  —  the  essays  on  "Circles"  and 
"  The  Over-Soul." 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  215 

and  praised  more  widely.  Few  of  his  poems  have  passed  into 
wide  currency,  but  many  of  his  brief  passages  are  quoted  by 
speakers  who  have  little  idea  as  to  their  source. 

Not  for  all  his  faith  can  see 
Would  I  that  cowled  churchman  be. 

Wrought  in  a  sad  sincerity. 

Earth  proudly  wears  the  Parthenon 
As  the  best  gem  upon  her  zone. 

...  if  eyes  were  made  for  seeing, 
Then  Beauty  is  its  own  excuse  for  being. 

Oh,  tenderly  the  haughty  day 
Fills  his  blue  urn  with  fire ! 

Those  who  are  fortunate  enough  to  have  known  him  —  he 
died  in  1882  —  all  agree  that  the  real  Emerson  can  be  known 
only  in  part  through  his  printed  pages.  His  life  was  after  all 
his  greatest  work.  He  was  serene,  noble,  dignified.  His  por 
traits,  at  whatever  age,  testify  to  his  fine  loftiness.  Every  hearer 
speaks  of  the  music  of  his  voice.  Withal  he  was  friendly,  full 
of  humor,  a  good  neighbor,  a  loyal  townsman,  and  an  engaging 
host  to  those  who  were  worthy  of  his  hospitality.  Charles 
Eliot  Norton,  returning  from  Europe  with  him  in  1873,  when 
Emerson  was  sixty-nine  years  old,  wrote  in  his  journal : 
11  Emerson  was  the  greatest  talker  in  the  ship's  company. 
He  talked  with  all  men,  yet  was  fresh  and  zealous  for  talk  at 
night.  His  serene  sweetness,  the  pure  whiteness  of  his  soul, 
the  reflection  of  his  soul  in  his  face,  were  never  more  apparent 
to  me."  No  single  quotation  nor  any  group  of  them  can  make 
real  to  the  young  student  that  quiet  refrain  of  reverent  affection 
which  is  sounded  in  the  recollections  of  scores  and  hundreds 
who  knew  him. 

This  almost  unparalleled  beauty  of  character  is  the  final 
guarantee  of  the  line  upon  line  of  his  poetry  and  the  precept 
upon  precept  of  his  prose.  What  he  taught  must  be  understood 


216        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

partly  in  the  light  of  himself  and  partly  in  the  light  of  the 
years  in  which  he  was  teaching.  Let  us  take,  for  example, 
,  /  his  two  chief  contentions.  First,  his  insistence  that  the  truth 
can  be  found  only  by  searching  one's  own  mind  and  con 
science.  Testing  this  doctrine  by  an  examination  of  the  man 
who  preached  it,  one  sees  that  he  inherited  a  power  to  think 
from  generations  of  educated  ancestry.  He  had  an  "  inquiring 
mind  "  and  an  inclination  to  use  it.  -Furthermore,  he  inherited 
from  this  same  ancestry  a^complete  balance  of  character.  He 
did  not  tend  to  selfishness  or  self-indulgence,  and  was  free 
from  thinking  that  the  "  voice  of  God "  counseled  him  to 
(  ignoble  courses.  Puritan  restraint  was  so  ingrained  in  him 
that  he  needed  no  outward  discipline  and  did  not  see  the 
need  of  it  for  others.  Freedom  for  him  was  always  liberty 
under  the  law  of  right ;  and  this  freedom  he  championed 
in  a  period  and  among  a  people  who  for  two  centuries  had 
been  accepting  without  thought  what  the  clergy  had  been  tell 
ing  them  to  believe.  It  had  been  for  them  to  do  what  they 
were  told,  rather  than  to  think  what  they  should  do.  Now  in 
Emerson's  day  there  was  a  general  restlessness.  The  domina 
tion  of  the  old  church  was  relaxed,  and  all  sorts  of  new  creeds 
were  being  propounded.  The  theory  of  democratic  government 
was  on  trial,  and  no  man  was  quite  certain  of  its  outcome. 
The  expansion  of  Western  territory  and  the  development  of 
the  factory  system  were  making  many  quick  fortunes  and 
creating  discontent  with  quiet  and  settled  frugality.  Men 
needed  to  be  told  to  keep  their  heads,  to  combine  wisely 
between  the  old  and  the  new,  and  to  accept  no  man's  judg 
ment  but  their  own.  The  "  standpatter  "  would  be  left  hope 
lessly  behind  the  current  of  human  thought ;  the  wild  enthusiast 
would  just  as  certainly  run  on  a  snag  or  be  cast  up  on 
the  shore.  • 

This  led  to  the  second  of  Emerson's  leading  ideas  —  that  a 
man  should  not^  -be  "  warped  clgan-  out  of  his  own  orbit." 
Reasoning  from  the  evident  working  of  a  natural  law  in  the 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  21? 

universe,  he  was  convinced  that  there  was  a  spiritual  law  which 
controlled  human  affairs.  He  was  certain  that  in  the  end  all 
would  be  well  with  the  world.  It  was  his  duty  and  every 
other  man's  to  be  virtuous  and  to  encourage  virtue,  but  as  the 
times  were  "in  God's  hand"  no  man  need  actively  fight  the 
forces  of  evil.  It  was  the  "  manifest  destiny  "  theory  cropping 
out  again,  a  belief  easy  to  foster  in  a  new  country  like  America, 
where  wickedness  could  be  explained  on  the  ground  that  in 
a  period  of  national  youth  temporary  mistakes  were  sure  to  be 
committed,  —  and  equally  sure  to  be  rectified.  "My  whole 
philosophy,"  he  said,  "  is  compounded  of  acquiescence  and 
optimism."  Hence  there  was  more  of  sympathy  than  coopera- L 
tion  in  Emerson's  attitude  toward  life.  Like  Matthew  Arnold 
in  these  same  years,  he  distrusted  all  machinery,  even  the 
"  machinery  "  of  social  reform. 

To  some  of  his  younger  friends,  and  particularly  to  those  who 
were  more  familiar  than  he  with  the  unhappy  conditions  in 
the  older  European  nations,  Emerson's  "  acquiescence  and  opti 
mism  "  seemed  wholly  mistaken.  We  may  return  to  Norton's 
comment  (p.  215),  which  was  unfairly  interrupted:  "  But  never 
before  in  intercourse  with  him  had  I  been  so  impressed  with 
the  limits  of  his  mind.  ...  His  optimism  becomes  a  bigotry, 
and  though  of  a  nobler  type  than  the  common  American  con 
ceit  of  the  preeminent  excellence  of  American  things  as  they 
are,  had  hardly  less  of  the  quality  of  fatalism.  To  him  this  is 
the  best  of  all  possible  worlds,  and  the  best  of  all  possible  times. 
He  refuses  to  believe  in  disorder  or  evil."  This  comment  is 
not  utterly  fair  to  Emerson,  but  it  represents  the  view  of  the 
practical  idealist  who  feels  that  for  all  Emerson's  insistence 
on  the  value  of  learning  from  life,  he  had  drawn  more  from 
solitude  than  from  society.  One  may  quote  with  caution  what 
the  pragmatic  Andrew  D.  White  said  of  Tolstoi : 

He  has  had  little  opportunity  to  take  part  in  any  real  discussion  of 
leading  topics ;  and  the  result  is  that  his  opinions  have  been  developed 
without  modification  by  any  rational  interchange  of  thought  with  other 


21 8        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

men.  Under  such  circumstances  any  man,  no  matter  how  noble  or 
gifted,  having  given  birth  to  striking  ideas,  coddles  and  pets  them 
until  they  become  the  full-grown,  spoiled  children  of  his  brain.  He  can 
see  neither  spot  nor  blemish  in  them,  and  comes  virtually  to  believe 
himself  infallible. 

Those  who  most  admire  Emerson  to-day  have  perhaps  as 
much  optimism  as  he  but  very  much  less  acquiescence.  For 
certain  vital  things  have  happened  since  he  did  his  work. 
Time,  —  Emerson's  "  little  gray  man," — who  could  perform  the 
miracle  of  continual  change  in  life,  has  done  nothing  more 
miraculous  than  making  men  share  the  burden  of  creating 
a  better  world.  Millions  are  now  trying  to  follow  Emerson's 
instruction  to  retain  their  independence  and  not  to  lose  their 
sympathy,  but  they  are  going  farther  than  he  in  expressing 
their  sympathy  by  work.  They  are  fighting  every  sort  of 
social  abuse,  as  Emerson's  Puritan  ancestors  fought  the  devil ; 
they  are  adopting  Emerson's  principles  and  Bryant's  tactics ; 
they  are  subscribing  to  Whittier's  line : 

O  prayer  and  action,  ye  are  one. 

BOOK  LIST 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON.  Centenary  Edition.  The  Complete  Works  of 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  1903-1904.  I2vols.  Uncollected  Writings. 
Essays,  Addresses,  Poems,  Reviews,  and  Letters,  by  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson.  1912.  The  chief  works  appeared  in  book  form  originally 
as  follows:  Nature,  1836;  The  American  Scholar,  1837;  An  Address 
delivered  before  the  Senior  Class  in  Divinity  College,  Cambridge, 
1838;  Essays,  1841;  Essays,  Second  Series,  1844;  Poems,  1847; 
Nature,  Addresses,  and  Lectures,  1849  ^Representative  Men,  1850; 
English  Traits,  1856;  The  Conduct  of  Life,  1860;  May-Day  and 
Other  Pieces,  1867;  Society  and  Solitude,  1870;  Letters  and  Social 
Aims,  1876;  The  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Carlyle  and  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  1883;  Lectures  and  Biographical  Sketches,  1884; 
Natural  History  of  Intellect  and  Other  Papers,  1893;  Journals  of 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  with  Annotations,  1909-1914. 

Bibliography 

A  volume  compiled  by  G.  W.  Cooke.    1908.    Cambridge  History  of 
American -Literature,  Vol.  I,  pp.  551-566. 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  219 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  James  Elliot  Cabot.  A  Memoir  of  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson.  1887.  2  vols. 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.  Democracy  in  Emerson's  Journals.  New  Re 
public,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  pp.  25-26. 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.  Emerson's  Feeling  toward  Reform.  New  Re 
public,  Vol.  I,  No.  13,  pp.  16-18. 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.  Emerson's  Solitude.  New  Republic,  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  68-70. 

BROWNELL,  WILLIAM  C.  Emerson,  in  American  Prose  Masters.  1909. 

BURROUGHS,  JOHN.    Emerson.    Birds  and  Poets.   1877. 

CHAPMAN,  J.  J.  Emerson,  Sixty  Years  After,  in  Emerson  and  Other 
Essays.  1898. 

Concord  School  of  Philosophy.  The  Genius  and  Character  of  Emer 
son.  Lectures  at  the  Concord  School  of  Philosophy.  F.  B. 
Sanborn,  editor.  1885. 

EMERSON,  EDWARD  WALDO.  Emerson  in  Concord.  A  Memoir.  1889. 

FIRKINS,  O.  W.    Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.   1915. 

GARNETT,  RICHARD.   Life  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.   1888. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  in  Contemporaries.    1899. 

HOLMES,  OLIVER  WENDELL.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  1885.  (A.M.L. 
Ser.) 

JAMES,  HENRY.   Emerson.   Partial  Portraits.  1888. 

LOWELL,  J.  R.  Mr.  Emerson's  New  Course  of  Lectures,  in  My  Study 
Windows.  1871. 

MAETERLINCK,  MAURICE.   Emerson,  in  Sept  Essais  d' Emerson.    1894. 

MORE,  PAUL  ELMER.  The  Influence  of  Emerson,  in  Shelbume  Essays. 
Ser.  i.  1904.  Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
Bk.  II,  chap.  ix. 

PAYNE,  W.  M.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  in  Leading  American  Essayists. 
1910. 

SANBORN,  F.  B.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  (Beacon  Biographies.)  1901. 

SANBORN,  F.  B.   The  Personality  of  Emerson.   1903. 

STEDMAN,  E.  C.    Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  in  Poets  of  America.   1885. 

STEPHEN,  LESLIE.    Emerson,  in  Studies  of  a  Biographer.  Ser.  2.   1902. 

WHIPPLE,  E.  P.  Recollections  of  Eminent  Men  and  Other  Papers. 
1887. 

WILLIS,  N.  P.  Emerson.  Second  Look  at  Emerson,  in  Hurry-Graphs. 
1851. 

WOODBERRY,  G.  E.    Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.   1907.   (E.M.L.Ser.) 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  introductions  and  conclusions  of  the  essays  of  1836, 
1837,  and  1838  and  note  the  poetical  setting  into  which  the  essays 
are  cast.  With  these  in  mind  read  the  foregoing  comments  on 
Emerson's  poetry  (pp.  213-215). 


220        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

4 

Compare  the  Emerson  and  Lowell  essays  on  Shakespeare. 

Compare  any  corresponding  sections  in  Emerson's  "  Representative 
Men  "  and  Carlyle's  "  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship." 

Read  Emerson's  "  English  Traits  "  and  Hawthorne's  "  Our  Old 
Home  "  for  a  comparison  in  the  points  of  view  of  the  two  Americans. 

Read  any  two  or  three  essays  for  the  nature  element  in  them, 
the  kind  of  things  alluded  to,  and  the  kind  of  significances  derived 
from  them. 

Read  any  one  or  two  essays  for  Emerson's  allusions  to  science  and 
to  the  sciences,  the  kinds  of  allusions  made,  and  the  kind  of  signifi 
cances  derived  from  them. 

Follow  the  footnote  on  page  214  for  a  comparison  of  Emerson's 
treatments  of  the  same  theme  in  prose  and  verse.  Read  also  his 
poem  "  Threnody  "  and  the  corresponding  passage  in  the  Journal  for 
the  winter  of  1842. 

Read  the  essay  on  Goethe  and  see  whether  in  Emerson's  judg 
ment  of  Goethe  as  a  German  national  character  he  agrees  with  or 
dissents  from  the  judgment  of  the  twentieth  century.  Compare  with 
Santayana's  estimate  of  Goethe  in  "  Three  Philosophical  Poets." 

A  sense  of  the  ecclesiastical  and  theological  unrest  in  Emerson's 
day  can  be  secured  through  the  reading  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Oldtown 
Folks,"  Charles  Kingsley's  "  Yeast,"  Anthony  Trollope's  "  Barchester 
Towers  " ;  or  in  poetry,  in  the  poems  of  doubt  of  Arnold  and  Clough 
and  Tennyson's  "  In  Memoriam." 

Read  "  The  American  Scholar  "  with  reference  to  the  three  influ 
ences  surrounding  the  scholar,  and  then  read  Wells's  "  The  Education 
of  Joan  and  Peter."  Are  there  any  points  in  common?  Compare 
the  section  on  Beauty  in  Emerson's  "  Nature  "  and  Poe's  discussion 
of  beauty  in  "  The  Poetic  Principle "  and  "  The  Philosophy  of 
Composition." 


CHAPTER  XV 

HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU 

Henry  D.  Thoreau  was  born  in  Concord,  Massachusetts,  in 
1817.  His  grandfather,  John  Thoreau,  a  Frenchman,  had 
crossed  to  America  in  1773  and  had  married  a  woman  of  Scotch 
birth  in  1781.  His  mother  came  from  a  Connecticut  family 
of  much  earlier  settlement  in  America,  but  his  more  striking 
traits  seem  to  have  passed  to  him  from  the  father's  side.  He 
was  a  normal,  out-of-door,  fun-loving  boy,  though  with  more 
than  average  fondness  for  books.  At  Harvard,  where  he  was  a 
graduate  in  1837,  he  was  able  but  unconventional.  He  was  more 
or  less  out  of  patience  with  the  narrow  limits  of  the  course  of 
study  and  the  spirit  of  rivalry  among  the  boys  which  made  them 
work  quite  as  much  for  class  ranking  as  for  the  value  of  what 
they  learned.  Toward  the  end  of  senior  year  this  contempt  for 
college  honors  came  to  a  head.  He  had  been  ill,  and  on  his 
return,  as  the  wise  President  Quincy  put  it,  revealed  "  some 
notions  concerning  emulation  and  college  rank,  which  had  a 
natural  tendency  to  diminish  his  zeal,  if  not  his  exertions." 
When  the  faculty  resented  this,  even  to  the  extent  of  planning 
to  withdraw  scholarship  support,  the  president  took  up  his 
cause  and  backed  him  for  his  character  rather  than  for  his 
performance.  It  was  appropriate  that  Emerson  should  have 
written  in  his  young  townsman's  behalf,  for  his  own  experience 
had  not  been  altogether  different. 

The  story  of  Thoreau 's  remaining  years  is  quickly  told.  He 
lived,  unmarried,  a  kind  of  care-free,  independent  life  that  in  an 
uneducated  laboring  man  would  be  called  shiftless.  Many  of  his 
townsmen  disapproved  of  his  eccentricities  —  his  brusque  man 
ners,  abrupt  speech,  and  radical  opinions,  and  his  unwillingness 

221 


222        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

to  work  for  money  unless  he  had  an  immediate  need  for  it. 
Yet  he  was  less  irregular  than  he  was  reputed  to  be.  From 
1838  to  1841  he  conducted  a  very  successful  school  in  Concord 
with  his  brother  John,  giving  it  up  only  with  the  failure  of 
John's  health,  and  —  in  spite  of  Emerson's  statement  to  the 
contrary  —  he  had  throughout  his  life  a  hand  in  the  family 
business  first  of  pencil-making  and  later  of  preparing  fine  plum 
bago  for  electrotyping.  However,  he  was  not  an  ordinary  routine 
man.  Like  Crevecceur,  whom  he  variously  suggests,  he  was  a 
surveyor  and  a  handy  man  with  all  sorts  of  tools.  Ten  years 
after  graduation  he  wrote  to  the  secretary  of  his  college  class : 

I  don't  know  whether  mine  is  a  profession,  or  a  trade,  or  what  not . . . 
I  am  a  schoolmaster,  a  private  Tutor,  a  Surveyor,  a  Gardener,  a 
Farmer,  a  Painter  (I  mean  a  House  Painter),  a  Carpenter,  a  Mason, 
a  Day-laborer,  a  Pencil-maker,  a  Glass-paper-maker,  a  Writer,  and 
sometimes  a  Poetaster. 

So  as  he  was  able  to  turn  an  honest  penny  whenever  he  needed 
one,  and  as  his  needs  were  few,  he  worked  at  intervals  and 
betweenwhiles  shocked  many  of  his  industrious  townsfolk  by 
spending  long  days  talking  with  his  neighbors,  studying  the 
ways  of  plants  and  animals  in  the  near-by  woods  and  waters, 
and  occasionally  leaving  the  village  for  trips  to  the  wilds  of 
Canada,  to  the  Maine  woods,  to  Cape  Cod,  to  Connecticut,  and, 
once  or  twice  on  business,  to  New  York  City.  After  college 
he  became  a  devoted  disciple  and  friend  of  Emerson.  From 
the  outset  Emerson  delighted  in  his  "  free  and  erect  mind, 
which  was  capable  of  making  an  else  solitary  afternoon  sunny 
with  his  simplicity  and  clear  perception."  They  differed  as 
good  friends  should,  Emerson  acquiescing  in  laws  and  practices 
which  he  could  not  approve,  and  Thoreau  defying  them.  The 
stock  illustration  is  on  the  issue  of  tax-paying.  Emerson,  as  a 
property-holder,  paid  about  two  hundred  dollars  and  refused  to 
protest  at  what  was  probably  an  undue  assessment.  Thoreau, 
outraged  at  the  national  policy  in  connection  with  the  Mexican 


ttleGround,     H^j£T*L~*^ 

,*-Jjj  \  -^.^V131^  /*lb"t_ 

^,  Old  Mans?  H'nsJ"    ,'-^roo^es 


CONCORD' 


Ore  at 

^/  e  i  a  s 


Orthodo) 
Church 


^"       ', 
^>    BearGarden 
E^  Hill 


A  LITERARY  MAP  OF  CONCORD 


224        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE  , 

War,  refused  on  principle  to  pay  his  few  dollars  for  poll  tax* 
and  had  to  be  shut  up  by  his  good  friend,  Sam  Staples,  col 
lector,  deputy  sheriff,  and  jailer,  who  tried  in  vain  to  lend  him 
the  money.  Emerson  visited  him  at  the  jail,  where  ensued  the 
historic  exchange  of  questions  :  "  Henry,  why  are  you  here  ?  " 
"  Waldo,  why  are  you  not  here  ? " 

The  records  of  the  rambles  of  the  two  men  are  many.  In  his 
memorial  essay  on  Thoreau,  Emerson  wrote : 

It  was  a  pleasure  and  a  privilege  to  walk  with  him.  He  knew  the 
country  like  a  fox  or  a  bird,  and  passed  through  it  as  freely  by  paths 
of  his  own.  He  knew  every  track  in  the  snow  or  on  the  ground,  and 
what  creature  had  taken  this  path  before  him.  .  .  .  On  the  day  I  speak 
of  he  looked  for  the  Menyanthes,  detected  it  across  the  wide  pool,  and 
on  examination  of  its^florets,  decided  it  had  been  in  flower  five  da^s. 

Emerson's  recoVds*  after  walks  with  Thoreau  are  full  iof 
wood  lore.  He  may  have  recognized  the  plants  himself,  but 
he  seldom  recorded  them  except  when  he  had  been  with  his 
more  expert  friend. 

In  1839  Thoreau,  in  company  with  his  brother,  spent  "A 
Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimac  Rivers,"  from  which  he 
drew  the  material  published  ten  years  later  in  a  volume  with 
that  title.  It  is  a  meandering  record  of  the  things  he  saw  during 
the  seven  days  and  the  thoughts  suggested  by  them.  In  his 
lifetime  the  book  was  so  complete  a  commercial  failure  that  after 
some  years  he  took  back  seven  hundred  of  the  thousand  copies 
printed.  In  the  meanwhile,  from  1845  to  l%47,  he  indulged 
in  his  best-known  experience  —  his  "  hermitage  "  at  Walden 
Pond,  a  little  way  out  from  Concord.  This  gave  him  the  sub 
ject  matter  for  his  most  famous  book,  "  Walden,"  published  in 
1854  and  much  more  successful  in  point  of  sales.  These  two 
volumes,  together  with  a  few  prose  essays  and  a  modest  number 
of  poems,  were  all  that  was  given  to  the  public  during  his  life 
time.  Since  his  death  a  large  amount  of  the  manuscript  he  left 
has  been  published,  as  shown  in  the  list  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU  225 

"  Walden  "  is  externally  an  account  of  the  two  years  and  two 
months  of  his  residence  at  the  lakeside,  but  it  is  really,  like  his 
sojourn  there,  a  commentary  and  criticism  on  life.  In  the  chap 
ter  on  "  Where  I  lived  and  What  I  lived  for  "  he  wrote  : 

I  went  to  the  woods  because  I  wished  to  live  deliberately,  to  front 
only  the  essential  facts  of  life,  and  see  if  I  could  not  learn  what  it 
had  to  teach,  and  not,  when  I  came  to  die,  discover  that  I  had  not 
lived.  ...  I  wanted  to  live  deep  and  suck  out  all  the  marrow  of  life, 
to  live  so  sturdily  and  Spartan-like  as  to  put  to  rout  all  that  was  not 
life,  to  cut  a  broad  swath  and  shave  close,  to  drive  life  into  a  corner, 
and  reduce  it  to  its  lowest  terms,  and,  if  it  proved  to  be  mean,  why 
then,  to  get  the  whole  and  genuine  meanness  of  it,  and  publish  its 
meanness  to  the  world  ;  or  if  it  were  sublime,  to  know  it  by  experience, 
and  be  able  to  give  a  true  account  of  it  in  my  next  excursion.  r\A 

The  actual  report  of  his  days  by  the  lakeside  can  be  separated 
from  his  decision  as  to  what  they  were  worth.  He  went  out 
near  the  end  of  March,  1845,  to  a  piece  of  land  owned  by 
Emerson  on  the  shore  of  the  pond.  He  cut  his  own  timber, 
bought  a  laborer's  shanty  for  the  boards  and  nails,  during  the 
summer  put  up  a  brick  chimney,  and  counting  sundry  minor 
expenses  secured  a  tight  and  dry  —  and  very  homely  —  four 
walls  and  ceiling  for  a  total  cost  of  $28. 12^.  Fuel  he  was  able 
to  cut.  Food  he  largely  raised.  His  clothing  bill  was  slight. 
So  that  his  account  for  the  first  year  runs  as  follows  : 

House <  $28.12^ 

Farm,  one  year 14-72^ 

Food,  eight  months 8.74 

Clothing,  etc.,  eight  months     ....       8.40^ 

Oil,  etc.,  eight  months 2.00 

$61.99! 

To  offset  these  expenses  he  recorded : 

Farm  produce  sold $23.44 

Earned  by  day  labor      ......     13.34 

$36.78 


226        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

leaving  $25.2i|,  which  was  about  the  cash  in  hand  with 
which  he  started.  The  expense  of  the  second  year  did  not, 
of  course,  include  the  heaviest  of  the  first-year  items  —  the 
cost  of  the  house. 

I  learned  from  my  two  years'  experience  that  it  would  cost  incredibly 
little  trouble  to  obtain  one's  necessary  food,  even  in  this  latitude.  .  .  . 
In  short,  I  am  convinced,  both  by  faith  and  experience,  that  to  main 
tain  oneself  on  this  earth  is  not  a  hardship  but  a  pastime,  if  we  will 
live  simply  and  wisely  ;  as  the  pursuits  of  the  simpler  nations  are  still 
the  sports  of  the  more  artificial.  It  is  not  necessary  that  a  man  should 
earn  his  living  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  unless  he  sweats  easier 
than  I  do. 

So  much  for  the  external  account  of  the  Walden  years.  The 
last  words  of  the  quotation  give  a  cue  to  the  criticism  with 
which  he  accompanies  the  bare  statement.  This  is  contained 
chiefly  in  chapters  I,  "  Economy  "  (the  longest,  amounting  to 
one  fourth  of  the  book) ;  II,  "  Where  I  lived  and  What  I  lived 
for";  V," Solitude";  VIII,  "The  Village" ;  and XVIII,  "Con 
clusion."  He  contended  that  life  had  been  made  complex  and 
burdensome  because  of  the  mistaken  notion  that  property  was 
much  to  be  desired.  This  idea  had  led  men  to  buy  land  and 
build  houses,  go  into  trade,  construct  railways  and  ships,  and  to 
set  up  government  and  rival  governments,  in  order  to  protect 
the  things  men  owned  and  those  they  were  buying  and  selling. 
Being  who  he  was,  he  asserted  boldly  and  sometimes  savagely 
a  large  number  of  charges  against  organized  society  and  the 
men  who  submitted  to  it.  "  The  laboring  man  has  not  leisure 
for  a  true  integrity."  "  The  civilized  man's  pursuits  are  not 
worthier  than  the  savage's."  "  The  college  student  obtains  an 
ignoble  and  unprofitable  leisure,  defrauding  himself."  "  Thank 
God,  I  can  sit  and  I  can  stand  without  the  aid  of  a  furniture 
warehouse."  "  Men  say  a  stitch  in  time  saves  nine,  so  they 
take  a  thousand  stitches  to-day  to  save  nine  to-morrow."  "  Society 
is  commonly  too  cheap."  "  Wherever  a  man  goes,  men  will 
pursue  and  paw  him  with  their  dirty  institutions,  and,  if  they 


HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU  227 

can,  constrain  him  to  belong  to  their  desperate,  odd-fellow 
society."  At  this  point  he  challenges  comparison  again  with 
Crevecceur  (see  p.  60).  To  the  hearty  immigrant  of  the  eight 
eenth  century  the  common  right  to  own  the  soil  and  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  labor  seemed  almost  millennial  in  view  of  the  Old 
World  conditions  which  denied  these  privileges  to  the  masses. 
To  the  New  England  townsman  the  ownership  of  property  was 
oppressive  in  view  of  the  aboriginal  right  to  traverse  field  and 
forest  without  any  obligation  to  maintain  an  establishment  or 
"improve"  an  acreage.  In  Crevecceur's  France,  where  for  cen 
turies  the  people  had  lived  on  sufferance,  tenure  of  the  land 
seemed  an  inestimable  privilege.  Thoreau's  America  seemed 
so  illimitable  that  he  apparently  supposed  land  would  always  be 
"  dirt  cheap."  Yet  though  one  prized  property  and  the  other 
despised  it,  they  were  alike  in  not  foreseeing  the  economic 
changes  that  the  nineteenth  century  was  to  produce. 

The  more  positive  side  of  Thoreau's  criticism  lies  in  the 
passages  in  which  he  told  how  excellent  was  his  way  of  living, 
how  full  of  freedom  and  leisure  and  how  blest  with  solitude. 
There  is  no  question  that  he  did  live  cheaply,  easily,  happily, 
and  independently,  nor  is  there  any  question  that  the  love  of 
money  and  what  it  represents  has  made  life  more  of  a  burden 
than  a  joy  for  millions  of  people ;  but  there  is  this  immense 
difference  between  the  independence  of  Thoreau  and  the  inde 
pendence  of  Emerson  —  that  Emerson  discharged  his  duties 
in  the  family  and  in  the  state  and  that  Thoreau  protested  at 
his  obligations  to  the  group  even  while  he  was  reaping  the 
benefits  of  other  men's  industry.  At  Walden  he  lived  on  land 
owned  by  Emerson,  who  bought  it  and  paid  the  taxes  on  it. 
The  bricks  and  glass  and  nails  in  his  shanty  and  the  tools  he 
borrowed  to  build  it  with  were  the  products  of  mines  and 
factories  and  kilns  brought  to  him  on  the  railroads  and  handled 
by  the  shopkeepers  whom  he  scorned.  He  was  therefore  in 
the  ungraceful  position  of  being  a  beneficiary  of  society  while 
he  was  carrying  on  a  kind  of  guerrilla  warfare  against  it. 


228        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

As  a  citizen  and  as  a  critic  of  society  Thoreau  lacked  the 
sturdy  Puritan  conscience  which  is  the  bone  and  sinew  of 
Emerson's  character,  and  he  lacked  the  "  high  seriousness  " 
of  his  greater  townsman.  In  consequence,  instead  of  being 
serenely  self-reliant  he  was  often  petulant ;  and  instead  of 
being  nobly  dignified  he  was  nervously  on  guard  against 
deserved  rebuke.  Emerson  frequently  uttered  and  wrote 
striking  sentences  which  surprise  one  into  pleased  attention. 
Thoreau  came  out  with  smart  and  clever  sayings  like  an  eager 
arid  half-naughty  boy  who  is  trying  to  shock  his  elders. 
Almost  the  only  rejoinder  that  his  protests  called  forth  must 
have  been  disturbing  to  him,  because  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
was  so  unruffled  as  he  wrote  his  "  Contentment." 

"  This  is  an  interesting  argument  from  a  well-meaning 
young  man,"  Holmes  seems  to  have  said : 

Little  /  ask,  my  wants  are  few ; 

and  then  in  playful  satire  he  told  about  the  hut  —  of  stone  — 
on  Beacon  Street  that  fronts  the  sun,  where  he  too  could 
live  content  with  a  well-set  table,  the  best  of  clothes,  furniture, 
jewelry,  paintings,  and  a  fast  horse  when  he  chose  to  take  an 
airing.  This  was  the  attitude  of  many  good-humored  men  and 
women  of  the  world  who  were  inclined  to  smile  indulgently 
at  whatever  came  out  of  Concord. 

However,  a  fair  estimate  of  Thoreau  and  his  case  against  the 
world  should  steer  the  wise  course  between  taking  him  too 
seriously  and  literally  and  not  taking  him  seriously  at  all, 
between  Stevenson's  scathing  attack  in  "  Familiar  Portraits  " 
and  Holmes's  supercilious  "  Contentment."  If  one  elects  to 
act  as  a  prosecuting  attorney,  one  can  say  of  him  what  Thoreau 
quotes  a  friend  as  saying  of  Carlyle,  that  he  "is  so  ready  to 
obey  his  humour  that  he  makes  the  least  vestige  of  truth  the 
foundation  of  any  superstructure,  not  keeping  faith  with  his 
better  genius  nor  truest  readers."  But  if  one  choose  to  value 
him  as  a  friend  might,  one  can  exonerate  him  in  the  light  of 


HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU  229 

a  warning  and  a  confession  of  his  own  :  "I  trust  that  you 
realize  what  an  exaggerator  I  am,  —  that  I  lay  myself  out  to 
exaggerate  whenever  I  have  an  opportunity,  —  pile  Pelion 
upon  Ossa,  to  reach  heaven  so."  This  is  the  very  point  of 
his  title-page  inscription  to  "  Walden  "  :  "  I  do  not  propose 
to  write  an  ode  to  dejection,  but  to  brag  as  lustily  as  chan 
ticleer  in  the  morning,  standing  on  his  roost,  if  only  to  wake 
my  neighbors  up."  It  is  easy  to  compare  Emerson  and 
Thoreau  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  younger  man.  But  at  one 
point  they  were  quite  alike,  and  that  is  in  the  fact  that  both 
were  more  social  in  their  lives  than  in  their  writings.  Thoreau 
was  not  an  unmitigated  anarchist,  or  hermit,  or  loafer.  He  was 
more  capable  and  industrious  than  he  admits ;  he  was  devoted 
to  his  family  and  a  loyal  friend.  In  his  protest  at  the  ways 
of  the  world  he  was,  in  a  manner,  "  whistling  to  keep  his 
courage  up,"  and  often  his  whistling  became  rather  shrill. 
The  greater  part  of  "Walden"  and,  indeed,  of  his  writing 
as  a  whole  is  the  work  of  a  naturalist  —  the  work  included  in 
such  chapters  as  "Sounds,"  "The  Ponds,"  "Brute  Neigh 
bors,"  "Former  Inhabitants,"  and  "Winter  Visitors,"  "Win 
ter  Animals,"  and  "The  Pond  in  Winter."  In  the  two 
generations  since  Crevecoeur's  "  Letters  from  an  American 
Farmer"  no  one  on  this  side  the  Atlantic  had  written  about 
the  out  of  doors  with  such  fullness  and  intimate  knowledge. 
In  this  respect,  moreover,  Thoreau,  instead  of  being  a  student 
or  imitator  of  Emerson,  was  his  guide  and  instructor.  Although 
modern  science  owes  little  to  him  and  has  corrected  many  of 
his  findings,  it  recalls  his  help  to  Agassiz  in  collecting  speci 
mens  ;  and  modern  literature  has  produced  only  one  or  two 
men,  like  John  Burroughs  and  John  Muir,  who  write  of  nature 
with  the  same  sympathy  and  beauty.  The  title  of  his  friend 
Channing's  book  "  Thoreau :  the  Poet-Naturalist "  tells  the 
whole  story.-  He  was  fascinated  by  growing  things.  He  could 
not  learn  enough  about  their  ways.  The  life  in  Concord's  rivers, 
ponds,  fields,  and  woods  by  day  and  night  and  during  the 


230       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

changing  seasons  was  an  endless  study  and  pleasure.  In  his 
journal  he  kept  a  detailed  record  of  the  pageant  of  the  year, 
which  after  his  death  was  assembled  in  the  four  volumes 
"Spring  in  Massachusetts,"  "  Summer,"  "Autumn,"  and 
"  Winter."  When  he  went  to  other  parts  of  the  country  he 
carried  his  knowledge  of  Concord  as  a  sort  of  reference  book. 
From  Staten  Island  he  wrote :  "  The  woods  are  now  full  of  a 
large  honeysuckle  in  full  bloom,  which  differs  from  ours.  .  .  . 
Things  are  very  forward  here  compared  with  Concord."  In 
the  Maine  woods  he  recognized  his  old  familiars  but  in  more 
massively  primitive  surroundings  than  those  at  home.  The 
sandy  aridity  of  Cape  Cod  furnished  him  daily  with  fascinating 
contrasts,  in  natural  surroundings  and  in  their  effect  on  the 
residents.  On  his  trip  to  Mount  Washington  he  found  forty- 
two  of  the  forty-six  plants  he  expected,  adding  one  to  his  list 
when,  after  falling  and  spraining  his  ankle,  he  limped  a  few 
steps  and  said,  "  Here  is  the  arnica,  anyhow,"  reaching  for  an 
arnica  mollis,  which  he  had  not  found  before.  And  when  he 
chose  to  put  into  essay  form  some  of  the  information  he  had 
gleaned,  he  was  exact  without  being  technical  and  never  for 
long  repressed  his  lively  spirits. 

The  poet  in  him  brought  him  back  continually  to  the  beauty 
in  what  he  saw.  He  did  not  particularly  incline  to  philosophize 
about  creation  like  Emerson,  the  sheer  facts  of  it  meant  so 
much  more  to  him.  Nor  did  he  care  to  expound  the  beauties 
of  nature  ;  he  simply  held  them  up  to  view.  Take,  for  example, 
this  bit  from  "  The  Pond  in  Winter,"  in  which  the  last  twelve 
words  are  quite  as  beautiful  as  the  thing  they  describe : 

Standing  on  the  snow-covered  plain,  as  if  in  a  pasture  amid  the 
hills,  I  cut  my  way  first  through  a  foot  of  snow,  and  then  a  foot  of 
ice,  and  open  a  window  under  my  feet,  where,  kneeling  to  drink,  I 
look  down  into  the  quiet  parlor  of  fishes,  pervaded  by  a  softened 
light  as  through  a  window  of  ground  glass,  with  its  bright  sanded 
floor  the  same  as  in  summer ;  there  a  perennial  waveless  serenity 
reigns  as  in  the  amber,  twilight  sky. 


HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU  231 

Or,  again,  this  prose  poem  quoted  in  Channing's  book : 

One  more  confiding  heifer,  the  fairest  of  the  herd,  did  by  degrees 
approach  as  if  to  take  some  morsel  from  our  hands,  while  our  hearts 
leaped  to  our  mouths  with  expectation  and  delight.  She  by  degrees 
drew  near  with  her  fair  limbs  (progressive),  making  pretence  of 
browsing ;  nearer  and  nearer,  till  there  was  wafted  to  us  the  bovine 
fragrance,  —  cream  of  all  the  dairies  that  ever  were  or  will  be :  and 
then  she  raised  her  gentle  muzzle  toward  us,  and  snuffed  an  honest 
recognition  within  hand's  reach.  I  saw  it  was  possible  for  his  herd  to 
inspire  with  love  the  herdsman.  She  was  as  delicately  featured  as  a 
hind.  Her  hide  was  mingled  white  and  fawn-color,  and  on  her 
muzzle's  tip  there  was  a  white  spot  not  bigger  than  a  daisy ;  and  on 
her  side  turned  toward  me,  the  map  of  Asia  plain  to  see. 

The  following  passages  fulfill  the  main  tenets  of  the  con 
temporary  Imagists : 

I  am  no  more  lonely  than  the  loon  in  the  pond  that  laughs  so  loud, 
or  than  Walden  pond  itself.  What  company  has  that  lonely  lake,  I 
pray  ?  .  .  .  I  am  no  more  lonely  than  a  single  mullein  or  dandelion  in  a 
pasture,  or  a  bean-leaf,  or  sorrel,  or  a  horse-fly,  or  a  bumble-bee.  I  am 
no  more  lonely  than  the  Mill  Brook,  or  a  weather-cock,  or  the  north 
star,  or  the  south  wind,  or  an  April  shower,  or  a  January  thaw,  or  the 
first  spider  in  a  new  house. 

The  wind  has  gently  murmured  through  the  blinds,  or  puffed  with 
feathery  softness  against  the  windows,  and  occasionally  sighed  like  a 
summer  zephyr,  lifting  the  leaves  along,  the  livelong  night.  The 
meadow-mouse  has  slept  in  his  snug  gallery  in  the  sod,  the  owl  has 
sat  in  a  hollow  tree  in  the  depth  of  the  swamp ;  the  rabbit,  the  squirrel 
and  the  fox  have  all  be  enhoused.  The  watch-dog  has  lain  quiet  on 
the  hearth,  and  the  cattle  have  stood  silent  in  their  stalls.  .  .  .  But 
while  the  earth  has  slumbered,  all  the  air  has  been  alive  with  feathery 
flakes  descending,  as  if  some  northern  Ceres  reigned,  showering  her 
silvery  grain  over  all  the  fields. 

No  yard;  but  unfenced  Nature  reaching  to  your  very  sills.  A 
young  forest  growing  up  under  your  windows,  and  wild  sumachs  and 
blackberry  vines  breaking  through  into  your  cellar  ;  sturdy  pitch-pines 
rubbing  and  creaking  against  the  shingles  for  want  of  room,  their 


232        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

roots  reaching  quite  under  the  house.  Instead  of  a  scuttle  or  a  blind 
blown  off  in  the  gale,  —  a  pine  tree  torn  up  by  the  roots  behind  your 
house  for  fuel.  Instead  of  no  path  to  the  front-yard  gate  in  the  Great 
Snow,  —  no  gate  —  no  front  yard,  and  no  path  to  the  civilized  world. 

His  manner  of  writing  was  so  like  Emerson's  that  the  com 
ments  on  the  style  of  the  elder  man  (see  pp.  212-215)  apply 
for  the  most  part  to  that  of  the  younger. 

From  the  year  of  "  Walden's  "  appearance  to  the  end  of 
Thoreau's  life,  in  1862,  three  matters  are  specially  worthy  of 
record.  The  first  is  that  recognition  began  at  last  to  come. 
This  probably  did  not  hasten  his  writing,  but  it  released  some 
of  the  great  accumulation  of  manuscript  in  his  possession. 
Several  of  the  magazines  accepted  his  papers,  notably  The 
Atlantic  Monthly,  which  took  eight  of  his  articles,  although 
seven  of  them  were  not  published  until  the  two  years  just 
after  his  death.  The  second  is  his  eager  friendship  for  two  of 
the  most  strikingly  unconventional  men  of  his  day  —  Walt 
Whitman  and  John  Brown  M  of  Harper's  Ferry."  Of  Whit 
man  he  wrote,  when  few  were  reading  him  and  few  of  these 
approving : 

I  have  just  read  his  second  edition  (which  he  gave  me),  and  it  has 
done  me  more  good  than  any  reading  for  a  long  time.  ...  I  have 
found  his  poems  exhilarating,  encouraging.  .  .  .  We  ought  to  rejoice 
greatly  in  him.  He  occasionally  suggests  something  a  little  more 
than  human.  You  can't  confound  him  with  the  other  inhabitants  of 
Brooklyn  or  New  York.  How  they  must  shudder  when  they  read 
him !  .  .  .  Since  I  have  seen  him,  I  find  I  am  not  disturbed  by  any 
brag  or  egoism  in  his  book.  He  may  turn  out  the  least  of  a  braggart 
of  all,  having  a  better  right  to  be  confident. 

John  Brown  he  had  met  in  Concord  only  a  few  weeks 
before  the  Harper's  Ferry  raid.  Two  weeks  after  the  capture 
of  Brown  he  delivered  an  address  on  the  issues,  first  in  Con 
cord  and  later  in  Worcester  and  in  Boston,  defying  his  friends 
who  advised  him  to  silence.  And  after  the  execution  of  the 
old  Kansan  he  arranged  funeral  services  in  Concord. 


HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU  233 

It  turns  what  sweetness  I  have  to  gall,  to  hear,  or  hear  of,  the 
remarks  of  some  of  my  neighbors.  When  we  heard  at  first  that  he 
was  dead,  one  of  my  townsmen  observed  that  "  he  died  as  the  fool 
dieth  " ;  which,  pardon  me,  for  an  instant  suggested  a  likeness  in  him 
dying  to  my  neighbor  living.  .  .  .  This  event  advertises  me  that  there 
is  such  a  fact  as  death,  —  the  possibility  of  a  man's  dying.  It  seems 
as  if  no  man  had  ever  lived  before  ;  for  in  order  to  die  you  must  first 
have  lived.  ...  I  hear  a  good  many  pretend  that  they  are  going  to 
die ;  or  that  they  have  died,  for  aught  that  I  know.  Nonsense  1  I  '11 
defy  them  to  do  it.  They  have  n't  got  life  enough  in  them.  They  '11 
deliquesce  like  fungi;  and  keep  a  hundred  eulogists  mopping  the 
spot  where  they  left  off.  "Only  a  half  a  dozen  or  so  have  died  since 
the  world  began. 

The  final  fact  of  these  later  years  is  the  breakdown  of  his 
own  health.  In  spite  of  the  moderation  and  sanity  of  his 
out-of-door  habits  his  strength  began  to  fail  him  before  he  had 
reached  what  should  be  the  prime  of  life.  From  the  ages  of 
thirty-eight  to  forty  he  had  to  exercise  the  greatest  care, 
avoiding  any  heavy  exertion.  A  severe  cold  caught  in  1860 
developed  soon  into  consumption,  which  carried  him  off  in 
the  spring  of  1862  at  the  age  of  forty-five 

BOOK  LIST 

HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU.  Works.  The  Riverside  Edition.  1894. 
10  vols.  Walden  Edition.  1906.  20  vols.  (Of  these  volumes  the  last 
fourteen  are  the  complete  Journal,  which  includes  in  its  original  form 
what  stands  in  Vols.  V-VIII  of  the  Riverside  Edition,  as  Early  Spring 
in  Massachusetts,  Summer,  Autumn,  Winter.)  His  works  appeared  in 
book  form  originally  as  follows :  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merri- 
mack  Rivers,  1849;  Walden,  1854;  Excursions,  1863;  The  Maine 
Woods,  1864;  Cape  Cod,  1865;  Letters  to  Various  Persons,  1865; 
A  Yankee  in  Canada,  1866;  Early  Spring  in  Massachusetts,  1881; 
Summer,  1884;  Winter,  1888;  Anti-Slavery  and  Reform  Papers, 
1890;  Essays  and  Other  Writings,  1891;  Autumn,  1892;  Miscel 
lanies,  1893;  Familiar  Letters,  1894;  Poems,  1895. 

Bibliography 

A  volume  compiled  by  Francis  H.  Allen.    1908.    Also  Cambridge 
History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  411-415. 


234       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  Frank  B.  Sanborn.   1917. 

BENTON,  JOEL.   The  Poetry  of  Thoreau.  Lippincotfs,  May,  1886. 

BURROUGHS,  JOHN.    Indoor  Studies.   1889. 

CHANNING,  W.  E.   Thoreau,  the  Poet-Naturalist.   1873. 

EMERSON,  R.  W.  Lectures  and  Biographical  Sketches.  Centenary 
Edition.  1903. 

FOERSTER,  NORMAN.  Humanism  of  Thoreau.  Nation,  Vol.  CV, 
pp.  9-12. 

LOWELL,  J.  R.   My  Study  Windows.   1871. 

MACMECHAN,  ARCHIBALD.  Cambridge  History  of  American  Litera 
ture,  Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  chap.  x. 

MARBLE,  A.  R.   Thoreau:  his  Home,  Friends,  and  Books.   1902. 

MORE,  P.  E.    Shelburne  Essays.   Ser.i.   1904. 

PATTEE,  F.  L.   American  Literature  since  1870,  chap,  viii,  sec.  I.  1915. 

RICHARDSON,  C.  F.   American  Literature,  Vol.  I.   1887. 

SALT,  H.  S.    Life  of  Thoreau.   1890. 

SALT,  H.  S.    Literary  Sketches.   1888. 

SANBORN,  F.  B.    Life  of  Thoreau.   1882.   (A.M.L.  Ser.) 

SANBORN,  F.  B.   Personality  of  Thoreau.   1901. 

STEVENSON,  R.  L.    Familiar  Studies  of  Men  and  Books.   1882. 

TORREY,  BRADFORD.    Friends  on  the  Shelf.   1906. 

TRENT,  W.  P.   American  Literature.   1903. 

VAN  DOREN,  MARK.   Henry  David  Thoreau:  a  Critical  Study.  1916. 

Pertaining  to  Thoreau.  S.  A.  Jones,  editor.  1901.  (Contains  ten 
reprinted  magazine  articles  on  Thoreau.) 


TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  Emerson's  "  Woodnotes,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  2  and  3,  for  a  passage 
which  admirably  characterizes  Thoreau,  though  it  is  said  to  have  been 
written  without  specific  regard  to  him. 

Read  "  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack  Rivers,"  noting 
chiefly  either  the  passages  on  literature  and  men  of  letters  or  the 
passages  of  a  sociological  interest.  Is  there  a  connecting  unity  in 
these  passages? 

Read  "  Economy "  in  "  Walden  "  and  the  second  and  third  of 
Crevecoeur's  "  Letters  from  an  American  Farmer  "  for  the  contrast 
in  ideas  on  property  or  for  the  contrast  in  ideas  on  the  privileges 
and  the  obligations  of  citizenship. 

Read  in  "  Walden  "  or  "  The  Maine  Woods  "  or  "  Cape  Cod  " 
or  "  A  Yankee  in  Canada "  or  "  Excursions "  for  examples  of 


HENRY  DAVID  THOREAU  235 

exaggeration  and  of  aggressive  self-consciousness.    Is  there  any  real 
likeness  between  Thoreau  and  Whitman  in  these  respects  ? 

Read  the  characterizations  of  Thoreau  in  the  essays  by  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  and  James  Russell  Lowell  and  decide  in  which 
points  they  should  be  modified. 

Read  any  one  or  two  essays  for  Thoreau's  allusions  to  science 
and  to  the  sciences,  the  kind  of  allusions  made,  and  the  kind  of 
significances  derived  from  them. 

Read  any  two  or  three  essays  for  the  nature  element  in  them, 
the  kind  of  things  alluded  to,  and  the  kind  of  significances  derived 
from  them. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE 

The  thought  of  Hawthorne  (1804-1864)  as  a  member  of  the 
"  Concord  group  "  should  be  made  with  a  mental  reservation. 
He  did  not  belong  to  Concord  in  any  literal  or  figurative  sense, 
he  was  not  an  intimate  of  those  who  did,  he  lived  there  for  only 
seven  years  at  two  different  periods  in  his  career,  and,  wherever 
he  lived,  he  was  in  thought  and  conduct  anything  but^a^group 
man.  Yet  he  was  a  resident  there  for  the  first  three  years 
after  his  marriage  (1842-1846),  and  he  developed  enough 
of  a  liking  for  the  town  to  return  to  it  for  the  closing  four 
years  of  his  life.  What  the  town  was  by  tradition  and  what 
it  had  become  through  Emerson's  influence  made  it  the  most 
congenial  spot  in  America  for  Hawthorne. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  lived  far  longer  in  Salem  —  all  but 
twelve  out  of  his  first  forty-six  years  —  and  he  belonged  to 
the  town  of  his  heritage  both  far  more  and  far  less.  Through 
instinctive  feelings  which  were  quite  beyond  his  control  he 
belonged  to  Salem  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart. 

This  old  town  of  Salem  —  my  native  place,  though  I  have  dwelt 
much  away  from  it,  both  in  boyhood  and  maturer  years  —  possesses, 
or  did  possess,  a  hold  on  my  affections,  the  force  of  which  I  have 
never  realized  during  my  seasons  of  actual  residence  here.  .  .  .  And 
yet,  though  invariably  happiest  elsewhere,  there  is  within  me  a  feeling 
for  old  Salem,  which,  in  lack  of  a  better  phrase,  I  must  be  content  to 
call  affection.  The  sentiment  is  probably  assignable  to  the  deep  and 
aged  roots  which  my  family  has  struck  into  the  soil.  It  is  now  nearly 
two  centuries  and  a  quarter  since  the  original  Briton,  the  earliest 
emigrant  of  my  name,  made  his  appearance  in  the  wild  and  forest- 
bordered  settlement,  which  has  since  become  a  city.  And  here  his 
descendants  have  been  born  and  died,  and  have  mingled  their  earthy 

236 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  237 


substance  with  the  soil ;  until  no  small  portion  of  it  must  neces 
sarily,  be  akin  to  the  mortal  frame  wherewith,  for  a  little  while,  I 
walk  the  streets.  In  part,  therefore,  the  attachment  which  I  speak  of 
is  the  mere  sensuous  sympathy  of  dust  for  dust.  Few  of  my  country 
men  can  know  what  it  is ;  nor,  as  frequent  transplantation  is  perhaps 
better  for  the  stock,  need  they  consider  it  desirable  to  know. 

Yet,  strong  as  this  unreasoned  feeling  was,  to  his  mind 
the  traditions  of  Salem  were  repellent,  and  it  offered  him  no 
attractions  as  a  place  to  live  in. 

But  the  sentiment  has  likewise  its  moral  quality.  The  figure  of 
that  first  ancestor,  invested  by  family  tradition  with  a  dim  and  dusky 
grandeur,  was  present  to  my  boyish  imagination,  as  far  back  as  I  can 
remember.  It  still  haunts  me,  and  induces  a  sort  of  home  feeling  for 
the  past,  which  I  scarcely  claim  in  reference  to  the  present  phase 
of  the  town.  I  seem  to  have  a  stronger  claim  to  a  residence  here 
on  account  of  this  grave,  bearded,  sable-cloaked  and  steeple-crowned 
progenitor  .  .  .  than  for  myself,  whose  name  is  seldom  heard  and  my 
face  hardly  known.  He  was  a  soldier,  legislator,  judge ;  he  was  a  ruler 
in  the  Church  ;  he  had  all  the  Puritanic  traits,  both  good  and  evil. 
He  was  likewise  a  better  persecutor.  .  .  .  His  son,  too,  inherited  the 
persecuting  spirit.  ...  I  know  not  whether  these  ancestors  of  mine 
bethought  themselves  to  repent,  and  ask  pardon  of  heaven  for  their 
cruelties ;  or  whether  they  are  now  groaning  under  the  heavy  conse 
quences  of  them,  in  another  state  of  being.  At  all  events,  I,  the  pres 
ent  writer,  as  their  representative,  hereby  take  shame  upon  myself  for 
their  sakes,  and  pray  that  any  curse  incurred  by  them  —  as  I  have 
heard,  and  as  the  dreary  and  unprosperous  condition  of  the  race,  for 
many  a  long  year  back,  would  argue  to  exist  —  may  be  now  and 
henceforth  removed. 

On  this  side  Hawthorne's  attitude  toward  Salem  —  but  really 
toward  New  England  and  all  America — was  like  that  of  a  man 
who  has  inherited  debts  of  honor  which  he  feels  bound  to  dis 
charge,  though  he  never  would  have  incurred  them  himself. 

Hawthorne  was  born  in  this  town  of  his  affection  and  his 
distrust  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1804.  When  he  was  four 
years  old  his  father,  a  shipmaster,  died  during  a  foreign 


I 


238        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

voyage.  The  sobering  effect  of  this  loss  was  increased  by  the 
way  in  which  Mrs.  Hawthorne  solemnized  it,  for  she  dedi 
cated  her  life  to  mourning,  not  only  withdrawing  from  the 
outer  world  but  even  taking  all  her  meals  apart  from  her  little 
daughters  and  her  son.  An  accident  to  the  boy  when  he  was 
nine  years  old  robbed  him  of  healthy  companionship  with 
playmates  by  keeping  him  out  of  active  sports  for  the  next 
three  years.  So  he  developed,  a  bookish  child  in  a  muffled 
household.  At  this  time  he  was  reading  Shakespeare,  Milton, 
and  the  eighteenth-century  poets ;  later  he  was  to  transfer 
allegiance  to  the  romantic  novelists.  In  his  fifteenth  year  the 
family  lived  together  for  several  months  at  Raymond,  Maine,  a 
"town"  of  a  half-dozen  houses  on  the  shore  of  Sebago  Lake. 
11  There,"  he  told  his  publisher,  James  T.  Fields,  late  in  life, 
"  I  lived  .  .  .  like  a  bird  of  the  air,  so  perfect  was  the  freedom 
I  enjoyed.  But  it  was  there  I  first  got  my  cursed  habits  of 
solitude."  The  need  of  proper  tutoring  for  college  preparation 
caused  his  reluctant  return  to  Salem,  and  he  was  glad  to 
escape  from  it  again  when  he  went  back  in  Maine  to  Bowdoin 
College  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  He  was  not  at  all  eager  for 
college,  but  regarded  it  as  an  unavoidable  step  in  his  training. 
At  the  same  time  he  rejected  the  prospect  of  entering  the 
church,  the  law,  or  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  even  as  a 
freshman  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  "  What  do  you  think  of  my 
becoming  an  author,  and  relying  for  support  upon  my  pen  ?  " 
With  such  a  point  of  view  he  did  no  better  work  than  could 
have  been  expected.  He  was  more  interested  in  the  reading 
of  his  own  choice  than  in  the  assigned  studies.  He  was 
somewhat  frivolous,  and  even  incurred  discipline  for  minor 
offenses  concerning  which  he  wrote  to  his  mother  with  amused 
and  amusing  frankness.  He  finished  a  shade  below  the  middle 
of  his  class,  and  left  Bowdoin  with  no  more  college  interest 
than  he  had  brought  to  it. 

Hawthorne's  life  for  the  twelve  years  which  followed  gradu 
ation  explains  why  he  later  referred  so  bitterly  to  his  "  cursed 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  239 

habits  of  solitude."  The  household  to  which  he  returned  from 
Bowdoin  was  almost  utterly  unsocial.  His  mother's  way  of  life 
had  been  adopted  by  his  two  sisters  as  well.  The  four  members 
of  the  family —  one  is  tempted  to  refer  to  them  as  "  inmates  " 
—  saw  very  little  of  each  other  as  the  days  went  on.  The 
young  author  neither  gave  nor  received  open  sympathy.  His 
writing,  done  in  solitude,  was  not  read  to  the  rest.  Conditions 
would  have  been  sufficiently  abnormal  if  he  had  daily  come 
back  to  this  sort  of  negative  family  experience  from  busy 
activity  in  the  outer  world,  but  of  the  outer  world  he  knew 
nothing.  Not  twenty  people  in  all  Salem,  he  said,  were  even 
aware  of  his  existence.  If  he  left  the  house  during  sunlight 
hours,  it  was  to  take  long  walks  in  the  country.  He  swam  in 
the  near-by  sea  before  the  town  was  stirring ;  he  walked  the 
streets  in  the  shadows  of  evening.  His  vital  energy  was  drawn 
from  reading  and  was  vented  on  his  own  manuscripts. 

His  writing  during  these  years  was  done  with  patient  per 
sistence  and  without  any  reward  of  applause  from  the  public. 
His  first  novel,  "  Fanshawe,"  was  published  in  1828  at  his 
expense,  was  a  failure,  and  was  subsequently  suppressed  — 
as  far  as  the  discouraged  author  could  recover  the  copies  is 
sued.  From  1829  to  1836  The  Token,  an  annual  put  out  by 
S.  G.  Goodrich  of  Boston,  was  his  main  channel  of  publication, 
taking  in  these  years  about  twenty-five  stories  and  sketches. 
Through  Goodrich  he  had  also  found  a  market  for  his  wares 
in  the  New  England  Magazine,  and  toward  the  end  of  the 
period  in  the  American  Monthly  Magazine  of  New  York,  and, 
best  of  all,  with  the  Knickerbocker  Magazine,  which  was  the 
periodical  embodiment  of  the  Irving  tradition  and  point  of 
view.  But  though  he  was  not  unsuccessful  in  getting  his  work 
into  print,  he  enjoyed  no  reputation  from  it,  for  only  a  few 
discriminating  critics  took  any  notice  of  it,  and  none  of  these 
was  fully  aware  of  the  author's  output,  since  he  wrote  not 
under  one  but  under  several  pseudonyms.  The  lack  of  whole 
some  human  contact  either  at  home  or  abroad  told  inevitably  on 


240        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Hawthorne's  nerves  and  temper  —  he  had  become  abnormally 
thin-skinned  —  and  resulted  in  the  touch  of  querulousness  which 
the  student  finds  from  time  to  time  in  his  accounts  of  himself. 
And  it  also  resulted  in  the  deep  self-distrust  and  discourage 
ment  which  grew  steadily  on  him.  "  I  have  made  a  captive 
of  myself,"  he  wrote  finally  to  his  old  college  classmate, 
Longfellow,  "and  put  me  into  a  dungeon,  and  now  I  cannot 
find  the  key  to  let  myself  out,  —  and  if  the  door  were  open, 
I  should  be  almost  afraid  to  come  out.  You  tell  me  that  you 
have  met  with  troubles  and  changes.  I  know  not  what  these 
may  have  been,  but  I  can  assure  you  that  trouble  is  the  next 
best  thing  to  enjoyment,  and  that  there  is  no  fate  in  this  world 
so  horrible  as  to  have  no  share  in  either  its  joys  or  sorrows." 
With  1837  the  friendship  of  two  college  associates,  Horatio 
Bridge,  a  man  of  political  influence  and  a  large  heart,  and 
Franklin  Pierce,  soon  to  be  the  president  of  the  country, 
began  to  assert  itself.  Through  Bridge  the  publication  of 
"Twice-Told  Tales"  was  effected  in  1838.  Through  the 
influence  these  men  were  able  to  exert,  Hawthorne  was 
appointed  weigher  and  gauger  in  the  Boston  Customhouse. 
With  this  post  Hawthorne  for  the  first  time  entered  into 
active  life,  yet  when  he  lost  it  as  a  result  of  a  change  of 
administration  in  1841  he  was  somewhat  relieved  at  the  hard 
ship.  His  engagement  to  Sophia  Peabody  led  him  next  to 
attempt  a  living  solution  through  residence  and  partnership 
in  the  Brook  Farm  enterprise  during  1841.  Again  he  was 
oppressed  by  having  the  world  too  much  with  him,  and  in 
1842,  on  his  marriage,  he  settled  in  the  seclusion  of  Concord 
for  his  first  residence  of  something  over  three  years.  At  the 
end  of  this  time  the  needs  of  his  growing  family  made  an 
assured  income  imperative,  and  once  more  through  the  political 
influence  at  his  command  he  was  given  a  federal  office,  this 
time  as  head  of  the  customhouse  at  Salem.  He  held  this 
position,  like  the  one  at  Boston,  until  a  political  reverse  took 
it  away  from  him  in  1849. 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  241 

Hawthorne  was  now  nearly  forty-six  years  of  age.  For  the 
twelve  years  following  the  publication  of  "  Twice-Told  Tales  " 
he  had  accomplished  almost  nothing  in  creative  authorship. 
The  human  sympathy  and  companionship  of  his  marriage, 
much  as  it  meant  to  him,  was  offset  as  far  as  authorship  went 
by  the  distracting  need  for  money.  With  the  loss  of  the  post 
at  Salem  the  outlook  was  almost  desperate.  In  the  dark  hour, 
however,  it  appeared  that  his  wife  had  saved  a  little  from  his 
slender  earnings,  and  in  the  following  months  he  wrote  what 
appeared,  through  the  friendly  insistence  of  James  T.  Fields, 
as  his  first  widely  recognized  work — "The  Scarlet  Letter." 
The  first  edition  of  this  was  exhausted  in  two  weeks.  The 
stimulus  of  popular  attention  encouraged  him  to  a  rapidity  of 
production  wholly  out  of  proportion  to  anything  in  his  earlier 
experience.  In  1851  "The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables"  was 
issued;  in  1852  "The  Blithedale  Romance";  and  in  the 
meanwhile  various  lesser  narratives  were  produced.  At  this 
stage  his  political  friendships  once  more  proved  of  value,  and 
through  the  influence  of  Pierce,  now  president,  he  was  enabled 
to  go  abroad  in  the  consular  service,  first  to  Liverpool  and  then 
to  Rome.  His  foreign  residence  continued  until  1860  and 
resulted,  in  authorship,  in  the  last  of  his  great  romances, 
"The  Marble  Faun,"  the  book  of  English  reminiscences,  "  Our 
Old  Home,"  and  the  "  Italian  Notebooks."  With  his  return  to 
America  he  went  back  to  Concord,  but  though  he  was  quite 
free  and  undistracted  by  financial  worries,  his  major  period  as 
an  author  was  over,  and  he  died  in  1864,  leaving  behind  him 
only  the  unimportant  stories  "  Doctor  Grimshaw's  Secret," 
"  Septimius  Felton,"  and  the  uncompleted  "Dolliver  Romance." 

In  all  the  most  obvious  ways  Hawthorne's  literary  output 
was  a  fruit  of  his  peculiar  heritage  and  surroundings  and  his 
consequent  manner  of  life.  A  reading  of  his  "American  Note 
books,"  the  product  of  the  late  3o's  and  the  40*5,  reveals  how 
definite  was  the  preparation  for  the  harvest  to  come.  It  was 
the  gift  of  Hawthorne's  imagination  to  shroud  with  a  kind  of 


242        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

unreality  characters  and  backgrounds  that  were  drawn  from 
close  observation.  His  interpretation  made  them  his  own, 
though  they  were  evidently  derived  from  the  life  about  him. 
This  process  is  in  utter  contrast,  for  example,  with  the  inven 
tion  of  Poe.  There  never  were  such  individuals  as  Arthur 
Gordon  Pym  or  Monsieur  Dupin  or  Fortunato  or  Roderick 
Usher.  They  are  essentially  human,  but  they  belong  to  no 
time  or  place.  But  Arthur  Dimmesdale,  Jaffrey  Pyncheon, 
Hollingsworth  and  Kenyon,  Hester,  Phcebe,  Zenobia,  and 
Miriam  were  portraits,  made  in  the  image  of  people  who  had 
walked  the  streets  familiar  to  Hawthorne.  Poe's  settings  are 
convincingly  real.  One  can  visualize  every  detail  of  the  City 
in  the  Sea  or  the  ghoul-haunted  woodland  of  Weir,  although 
one  realizes  that  they  never  existed  in  fact;  but  Boston, 
Salem,  Brook  Farm,  and  Rome  supply  actual  backgrounds 
for  Hawthorne.  Had  the  Puritans  builded  as  securely  as  the 
Romans,  "  The  Scarlet  Letter,"  "  The  House  of  the  Seven 
Gables,"  and  "The  Blithedale  Romance"  could  be  illustrated 
—  as  M  The  Marble  Faun  "  often  has  been  —  from  photographs 
of  surviving  structures.  Again,  these  actual  scenes  and  people 
were  put  into  stories  for  which  there  were  historical  bases, 
and  the  symbols  around  which  they  were  constructed  —  like 
the  letter  of  scarlet  and  the  many-gabled  house  —  had  been 
seen  and  touched  by  the  author.  The  Maypole  of  Merry 
Mount  once  stood  on  the  Wollaston  hilltop,  the  great  stone 
face  is  not  yet  weathered  beyond  all  recognition,  and  the 
legends  of  the  Province  House  are  amply  documented. 

In  the  Notebooks,  particularly  for  1835-1845,  there  is  abun- 
dant  record  of  how  Hawthorne's  fancy  was  continually  at  play 
with  the  material  within  his  reach.  He  made  definite  entries 
as  to  past  events  and  vital  associations  of  old  buildings.  He 
made  detailed  studies  of  odd  characters  seen  in  his  occasional 
little  journeys  into  the  world.  He  even  saved  proper  names, 
phrases,  similes,  epigrams  which  some  day  might  be  of  use  : 
"  Miss  Asphyxia  Davis,"  "A  lament  for  life's  wasted  sunshine," 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  243 

"A  scold  and  a  blockhead,  —  brimstone  and  wood,  —  a  good 
match,"  "Men  of  cold  passions  have  quick  eyes."  But  far 
more  significant  than  these  explicit  items  are  the  many  which 
are  suggestive  of  whole  sketches  or  stories  later  to  be  written. 
Among  these  the  following  may  easily  be  identified:  "To  make 
one's  own  reflection  in  a  mirror  the  subject  of  a  story  "  ;  "A 
snake  taken  into  a  man's  stomach  and  nourished  there  from 
fifteen  years  to  thirty-five,  tormenting  him  most  horribly. 
A  type  of  envy  or  some  other  evil  passion."  "  A  person  to  be 
in  the  possession  of  something  as  perfect  as  mortal  man  has 
a  right  to  demand  ;  he  tries  to  make  it  better,  and  ruins  it 
entirely."  "  Some  very  famous  jewel  or  other  thing,  much 
talked  of  all  over  the  world.  Some  person  to  meet  with  it, 
and  get  possession  of  it  in  some  unexpected  manner,  amid 
homely  circumstances."  "  The  influence  of  a  peculiar  mind, 
in  close  communion  with  another,  to  drive  the  latter  to  insanity." 
"  Pandora's  Box  for  a  child's  story."  "  A  person  to  be  the 
death  of  his  beloved  in  trying  to  raise  her  to  more  than  mortal 
perfection ;  yet  this  should  be  a  comfort  to  him  for  having  aimed 
so  highly  and  holily."  "To  make  a  story  out  of  a  scarecrow, 
giving  it  odd  attributes. ..."  "A  phantom  of  the  old  royal  gov 
ernors,  or  some  such  shadowy  pageant,  on  the  night  of  the  evac 
uation  of  Boston  by  the  British."  What  Hawthorne  attempted 
was  essentially  what  Wordsworth  did  :  to  lift  the  material  of 
everyday  life  out  of  the  realm  of  the  commonplace. 

In  another  and  more  important  way  Hawthorne's  writings 
show  the  effect  of  these  long  years  of  preparation,  and  that  is 
in  the  self-reflectjpjum  the  majority  of  them,  and  especially  in 
the  four  major  romances.  In  the  quarter  century  between  his 
graduation  from  Bowdoin  and  the  publication  of  "The  Marble 
Faun,"  the  most  striking  and  the  most  dangerous  feature  had 
been  his  long  isolation  and  the  resultant  effects  of  it.  He  had 
not  withdrawn  from  the  world  in  contempt ;  he  had  insensibly 
drifted  out  of  it.  He  was  by  no  means  indifferent  to  it ;  on  the 
contrary,  he  was  increasingly  sensitive  to  it.  He  needed  to  fill 


244        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

his  purse  and  he  needed  encouragement  to  write.  Yet  when 
he  went  out  into  the  market  place  he  was  cruelly  ignored  by 
many  and  shouldered  about  by  the  hustling  crowds,  who  were 
so  used  to  their  own  rude  ways  that  they  were  often  quite  inno 
cent  of  the  affronts  they  put  upon  him.  It  is  a  consequence 
of  this  unhappy  experience  that  in  the  famous  romances  and 
in  many  of  the  shorter  sketches  the  narrative  is  woven  around 
two  types  —  a  shrinking,  hypersensitive  character  and  a  rude 
or  insidious  but  always  malevolent  man  who  stands  for  the 
incarnation  of  the  outer  world.  For  Hester  and  for  Arthur 
Dimmesdale,  for  Hepzibah  and  Clifford  Pyncheon,  for  Priscilla 
and  for  Donatello,  no  complete  isolation  is  possible.  No  deed 
which  involves  them,  whether  committed  by  themselves  or  by 
others,  can  be  committed  without  regard  to  the  future.  Always 
there  is  a  knocking  at  the  gate,  as  the  outer  world  insists  on 
obtruding  itself  into  the  holiest  of  holies.  And  this  invasion 
is  the  more  cruel  as  it  is  the  less  deserved.  Chillingworth's 
•malign  and  subtle  revenge  on  Arthur  Dimmesdale  is  an  exer- 
'cise  of  poetic  justice.  It  is  a  horrible  but  not  undeserved  visita 
tion.  But  Priscilla,  Donatello,  and  the  two  pitiful  Pyncheons 
are  innocent  victims.  Hepzibah  and  Clifford  are  hounded  out 
of  life  by  a  bland  representative  of  the  law  and  the  church,  a 
wolf  in  the  sheep's  clothing  of  respectability.  Priscilla  falls  in 
love  with  a  reformer,  one  of  the  type  who  Thoreau  complained 
pursued  and  pawed  him  with  their  "  dirty  institutions "  and 
tried  to  constrain  him  into  their  M desperate,  odd-fellow  society"; 
she  wilts  at  his  touch.  Donatello,  the  embodiment  of  innocent 
happiness,  is  enmeshed  in  the  web  of  society  and  destroyed 
by  the  fell  spirit  at  its  center.  Hawthorne  never  could  have 
presented  this  view  in  its  repeated  tableaux  if  he  had  not  for 
years  seen  the  concourse  of  life  rush  by  him,  and  for  years 
made  his  successive  efforts  to  reenter  its  currents. 

The  whole  situation  is  summarized  in  Hawthorne's  intro 
duction  of  Septimius  Felton,  hero  of  the  last  work  of  his  pen. 
"  I  am  dissevered  from  it,"  he  says  in  the  opening  scene. 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  245 

"It  is  my  doom  to  be  only  a  spectator  of  life;  to  look  on  as 
one  apart  from  it.  Is  it  not  well,  therefore,  that,  sharing  none 
of  its  pleasures  and  happiness,  I  should  be  free  of  its  fatalities, 
its  brevity  ?  How  cold  I  am  now,  while  this  whirlpool  is  eddy 
ing  all  around  me."  Yet,  a  moment  later  he  snatches  a  gun 
and  rushes  out  of  the  house  to  where  he  can  see  the  British 
redcoats  passing  the  Concord  house.  He  refrains  from  shooting, 
only  to  be  seen  by  a  flanking  party,  and  against  his  will  is  forced 
to  fire  a  deadly  bullet.  "  I  have  seen  and  done  such  things/' 
he  says  an  hour  later,  "as  change  a  man  in  a  moment.  .  .  . 
I  have  done  a  terrible  thing  for  once  .  .  .  one  that  might 
well  trace  a  dark  line  through  all  my  future  life."  To  this 
degree,  then,  Hawthorne's  surroundings  and  his  own  unfolding 
experience  had  supplied  him  with  themes  and  materials. 

Much  of  the  remainder  of  his  work  had  its  source  in  his 
Puritan  inheritance.  To  this  the  already  quoted  passage  on 
old  Salem  (p.  237)  bears  witness.  To  this  heritage  is  due  in 
large  measure  the  essential  gravity  of  his  nature,  which  has 
been  unfairly  but  suggestively  described  as  a  compound  of 
"  seven  eighths  conscience  and  the  rest  remorse  "  ;  and  to  this 
is  partly  attributable  his  absorption  with  the  presence  and  the  ^ 
problem  of  sin  in  the  world.  "  The  Scarlet  Letter  "  deals  with" 
its  immediate  effect  on  the  transgressor ;  "  The  House  of  the 
Seven  Gables,"  with  its  effect  on  succeeding  generations ; 
"The  Blithedale  Romance,"  with  its  blighting  effect  on  the 
reformer,  who  is  selfish  and  heartless  even  in  his  fight  against 
social  wrong;  "The  Marble  Faun,"  with  the  basic  reasons  for 
the  existence  of  evil.  Yet  though  the  Puritan  strain  in  him 
could  determine  the  direction  of  his  thoughts,  it  could  not 
determine  their  goal,  for  Hawthorne  recoiled  from  the  Puritan 
acceptance  of  sin  as  a  devil's  wile  to  be  atoned  for  only  through 
the  sufferings  of  a  mediator  or  the  tortures  of  the  damned. 
He  rejected  the  Calvinistic  fear  of  eternal  punishment  for  the 
Miltonic  conclusion  that  the  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  of  itself  *"~" 
can  make  a  heaven  of  hell ;  at  which  point  he  was  at  one 


246        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

with  the  Transcendentalists  in  substituting  "for  a  dogmatic 
dread,  an  illimitable  hope."  His  indictment  of  the  Puritans 
themselves  was  more  insistent  than  his  charges  against  their 
theology.  He  condemned  them  for  their  cruel  intolerance 
and  for  the  arid  bleakness  of  their  lives.  So  he  was  at  once 
a  product  of  his  ancestry  and  a  living  protest  against  it. 

But  Hawthorne  was  more  than  a  Puritan  apostate ;  he  was 
in  accord  with  most  of  the  rising  individualism  of  his  day. 
He  felt  that  as  the  result  of  multitudinous  changes  in  govern 
ment,  church,  and  industry,  the  world  had  for  the  moment 
"  gone  distracted  through  a  morbid  activity  "  and  needed  above 
all  things  a  period  of  quiet  in  which  to  recover  its  balance  of 
judgment.  So  he  distrusted  the  schemes  of  "young  visionaries," 
"gray-headed  theorists,"  "uncertain,  troubled,  earnest  wanderers 
through  the  midnight  of  the  moral  world."  Yet  he  acknowl 
edged  that  as  long  as  the  world  could  not  be  put  to  sleep, 
restlessness  was  better  than  inertia.  The  radical  Holgrave,  in 
"The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables,"  is  his  most  sympathetic 
portrait  of  young  America.  A  colloquy  with  Phcebe  Pyncheon 
represents  him  as  spokesman  for  the  future,  and  Phcebe  as 
the  voice  of  the  placidly  thoughtless  present.  Her  remarks, 
though  brief,  are  quite  as  significant  as  his. 

* '  Just  think  a  moment  [he  exclaims]  and  it  will  startle  you 
to  see  what  slaves  we  are  to  bygone  times,  —  to  Death,  if  we 
give  the  matter  the  right  word ! ' 

"  '  But  I  do  not  see  it,'   observed  Phoebe. 

'  For  example  then,'  continued  Holgrave,  'a  dead  man,  if 
he  happen  to  have  made  a  will,  disposes  of  wealth  no  longer 
his  own ;  or,  if  he  die  intestate,  it  is  distributed  in  accordance 
with  the  notions  of  men  much  longer  dead  than  he.  A  dead 
man  sits  on  all  our  judgment  seats ;  and  living  judges  do  but 
search  out  and  repeat  his  decisions.  We  read  in  dead  men's 
books  !  We  laugh  at  dead  men's  jokes,  and  cry  at  dead  men's 
pathos!  —  We  are  sick  of  dead  men's  diseases,  physical  and 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  247 

moral,  and  die  of  the  same  remedies  with  which  dead  doctors 
killed  their  patients  !  We  worship  the  living  deity  according 
to  dead  men's  forms  and  creeds.  Whatever  we  seek  to  do,  of 
our  own  free  motion,  a  dead  man's  icy  hand  obstructs  us. 
Turn  our  eyes  to  what  point  we  may,  a  dead  man's  white 
immitigable  face  encounters  them,  and  freezes  our  very  heart ! 
And  we  must  be  dead  ourselves  before  we  can  begin  to  have 
our  proper  influence  on  our  own  world,  which  will  then  be 
no  longer  our  world,  but  the  world  of  another  generation  with 
which  we  shall  have  no  shadow  of  a  right  to  interfere.  I  ought 
to  have  said,  too,  that  we  live  in  dead  men's  houses ;  as,  for 
instance,  this  of  the  Seven  Gables/ 

'  *  And  why  not  ? '  said  Phcebe,  '  so  long  as  we  can  be 
comfortable  in  them.' ' 

Properly  interpreted,  this  conversation  implies  vigorous  criti 
cism  of  both  the  youthful  speakers.  Holgrave's  sweeping 
protests  are  too  drastic,  but  Phoebe's  placid  acquiescence  is 
deadening.  As  if  Hawthorne  were  afraid  his  sympathy  with 
Holgrave  would  not  appear,  he  goes  on  to  say  that  in  the 
course  of  time  the  youth  will  have  to  conform  his  faith  to  the 
facts  without  losing  his  hopes  for  the  future,  "  discerning  that 
man's  best  directed  effort  accomplishes  a  kind  of  dream,  while 
God  is  the  sole  worker  of  realities." 

It  was  this  breadth  of  view,  combined  with  his  technical 
gifts  as  a  teller  of  tales,  that  made  Hawthorne  a  great  artist ; 
for  no  degree  of  skill  or  cleverness  can  give  lasting  significance 
to  the  work  of  a  man  who  has  not  in  spirit  been  taken  up 
to  a  high  mountain  and  shown  the  uttermost  kingdoms  of  the 
world.  Granted  a  "  philosophy  of  life  "  which  inspires  a  man 
to  high  endeavor  and  enables  him  to  see  the  relation  between 
the  things  that  are  seen  and  are  temporal  and  the  things  that 
are  not  seen  and  are  eternal,  the  creative  artist  need  not  be 
always  preaching  a  moral  or  adorning  a  tale.  The  implications 
that  he  finds  in  his  material  and  the  abiding  convictions  he 


248        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

has  about  life  and  death  need  no  labeling.  They  appear  as  a 
man's  character  does,  from  his  daily  talk  and  conduct.  Let  the 
romancer  state  this  in  his  own  words : 

When  romances  really  do  teach  anything,  or  produce  any  effective 
operation,  it  is  usually  through  a  far  more  subtile  process  than  the 
ostensible  one.  The  author  has  considered  it  hardly  worth  his  while, 
therefore,  relentlessly  to  impale  the  story  with  its  moral,  as  with  an  iron 
rod,  —  or,  rather,  as  by  sticking  a  pin  through  a  butterfly,  r—  thus  at 
once  depriving  it  of  life,  and  causing  it  to  stiffen  in  an  ungainly  and  un 
natural  attitude.  A  high  truth,  indeed,  fairly,  finely,  and  skilfully  wrought 
out,  brightening  at  every  step,  and  crowning  the  final  development  of 
a  work  of  fiction,  may  add  an  artistic  glory,  but  is  never  any  truer, 
and  seldom  any  more  evident,  at  the  last  page  than  at  the  first. 

Now  and  again  Hawthorne  forgot  this,  and  stopped  to  ex 
pound  and  explain,  which  was  unnecessary.  And  now  and  again 
he  used  his  powers  to  vent  his  feelings  by  contemptuous  portrayal 
of  living  people,  holding  them  up  to  scorn,  which  was  unworthy. 
But  even  though  he  lacked  the  Olympian  serenity  of  the  supreme 
story-tellers,  he  wrote  as  a  wise  man,  and  he  wrote  surpassingly 
well.  It  remains,  then,  to  speak  of  his  workmanship. 

In  the  preface  to  "The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables,"  from 
which  the  above  passage  is  quoted,  Hawthorne  discusses  his 
methods  as  a  romancer :  how  he  combines  materials  at  hand, 
but  makes  them  present  the  truth  of  the  human  heart  not  as 
the  realist  but  under  circumstances  of  his  own  choosing  and 
with  a  "  slight,  delicate  and  evanescent  flavor"  of  the  marvelous. 
And  this  shadowy  unreality,  he  points  out,  comes  from  the  con 
nection  of  "  a  bygone  time  with  the  Very  present  that  is  flitting 
away  from  us.  It  is  a  legend,  prolonging  itself,  from  an  epoch 
now  gray  in  the  distance,  down  into  our  own  broad  daylight,  and 
bringing  along  with  it  some  of  its  legendary  mist."  It  is  a  cue 
to  every  one  of  the  longer  tales  and  to  most  of  the  short  ones. 
Always  the  outreaching  hand  of  the  past  plucking  at  the  gar 
ments  of  the  present, — the  traditions  of  an  elder  day  or  the  con 
sequences  of  a  deed  committed  before  the  opening  of  the  story. 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  249 

In  a  misty,  twilight  atmosphere,  starting  where  stories  fre 
quently  end,  —  with  a  momentous  act  already  performed,  — 
Hawthorne's  romances  proceed  almost  by  formula.  Each  is 
dominated  by  a  physical  symbol,  itself  a  suggestion  of  some 
connection  with  the  past,  continually  recurrent,  always  half 
mysterious.  Each  is  told  in  terms  of  a  very  small  group  of 
characters,  of  whom  three  usually  emerge  farthest  from  the 
shadows.  The  best  of  his  longer  works  are  not  put  into  the 
''well-made  plot"  strait- j acket ;  and  on  this  point  Mrs.  Haw 
thorne's  testimony  is  on  record  that  the  plots  grew  out  of  the 
people  instead  of  being  imposed  upon  them.  Each  is  made  up 
mostly  of  analytic  interpretation  of  moods,  and  each  is  gar 
nished  with  many  a  meditative  commentary  on  the  story-text. 
Finally,  each  and  all  of  Hawthorne's  writings  are  characterized 
by  a  scrupulous  nicety  of  style,  a  leisureliness  of  sentence, 
a  precision  of  diction  that  become  the  courtly  manners  of  the 
old  regime.  He  was  as  simple  as  formality  will  allow,  as  formal 
as  simplicity  will  permit.  If  we  are  to  liken  him  to  other 
writers,  it  will  not  be  to  any  contemporaries,  not  even  to 
Mr.  Howells.  The  comparison  will  take  us  back  to  Goldsmith 
or  Jane  Austen  or  to  those  passages  in  Thackeray  which  are  r 
most  reminiscent  of  the  elder  day.  Moreover,  the  book  style 
of  Hawthorne  was  something  quite  apart  from  his  letter  writ 
ing,  which  had  a  masculine  directness  and  vigor.  He  was  a 
late  member  of  Irving's  generation.  When  he  wrote  he  "  took 
his  pen  in  hand  "  to  address  "  the  gentle  reader."  All  such 
literary  amenities  are  now  the  oldest  of  old  fashions  ;  but  when 
they  were  the  vogue  Hawthorne  was  a  master  of  them. 

BOOK  LIST 

NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE.  Works.  There  have  been  eighteen  editions 
of  Hawthorne's  Collected  Works  between  1871  and  1904  in  from 
6  to  1 8  vols.  These  appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows: 
Fanshawe,  1828  ;  Twice-Told  Tales,  1837;  Grandfather's  Chair, 
1841 ;  Famous  Old  People,  1841  ;  Biographical  Stories  for  Children, 


250       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

1842  ;  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  1846;  The  Scarlet  Letter,  1850; 
True  Stories,  1851 ;  The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables,  1851 ;  A  Won 
der  Book,  1851 ;  The  Blithedale  Romance,  1852 ;  Tanglewood  Tales, 
1853;  The  Marble  Faun,  1860;  Our  Old  Home,  1863;  American 
Notebooks,  1868;  English  Notebooks,  1870;  French  and  Italian 
Notebooks,  1871;  Septimius  Felton,  1871;  The  Dolliver  Romance, 
1876;  Doctor  Grimshawe's  Secret,  1883. 

Bibliography 

A  volume  compiled  by  Nina  E.  Browne.  1905.  Also  Cambridge 
History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  415-424. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

BRIDGE,  HORATIO.  Personal  Recollections  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 
1893.  (Based  on  three  papers  in  Harper's  Magazine,  January- 
March,  1892.) 

BROWNELL,  W.  C.    American  Prose  Masters.   1909. 

CONWAY,  M.  D.    Life  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne.    1890. 

ERSKINE,  JOHN.  Leading  American  Novelists.  1910.  Cambridge 
History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  chap.  xi. 

FIELDS,  J.  T.    Hawthorne.   1876. 

FIELDS,  MRS.  ANNIE.   Nathaniel  Hawthorne.   1899. 

HAWTHORNE,  JULIAN.    Hawthorne  and  his  Circle.   1903. 

HAWTHORNE,  JULIAN.    Nathaniel  Hawthorne  and  his  Wife.   1885. 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.   American  Notebooks. 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.   English  Notebooks. 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL.    French  and  Italian  Notebooks. 

JAMES,  HENRY.    Nathaniel  Hawthorne.   1879.   (E.M.L.Ser.) 

LATHROP,  GEORGE  P.    A  Study  of  Hawthorne.    1876. 

LATHROP,  ROSE  HAWTHORNE.    Memories  of  Hawthorne.   1897. 

TICKNOR,  CAROLINE.    Hawthorne  and  his  Publisher.    1913. 

WOODBERRY,  G.  E.    Nathaniel  Hawthorne.    1902.   (A.M.L.Ser.) 


TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  title  essay  in  "  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse  "  and  "  The 
Custom-House  "  prefatory  to  "  The  Scarlet  Letter  "  for  Hawthorne's 
analysis  of  his  feeling  for  the  Puritan  heritage. 

With  these  in  mind  read  "  Young  Goodman  Brown,"  "  Governor 
Endicott  and  the  Red  Cross,"  and  "  The  May-Pole  of  Merry  Mount." 

Survey  the  "  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse  "  or  "  Twice-Told  Tales  " 
for  the  proportion  of  stories  which  are  written  against  evident 
New  England  background. 


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  251 

Identify  the  passages  from  u  The  American  Notebooks,"  cited  on 
page  243,  with  the  complete  works  for  which  they  furnished  cues. 

Read  "  The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables  "  for  the  light  it  throws 
on  the  history  of  the  Hawthorne  family  in  the  earlier  generations. 

Read  any  one  of  the  four  great  romances  or  the  three  later  ones 
with  reference  to  the  constant  recurrence  of  sin  as  a  theme. 

Compare  this  treatment  of  sin  in  Hawthorne  with  the  treatment 
of  crime  in  Poe. 

Hawthorne  is  chiefly  interested  in  individual  experience.  Read 
one  of  his  romances  for  clear  evidence  of  his  social  consciousness. 

Discuss  his  success  in  any  given  story  in  connecting  "  a  bygone 
time  with  the  very  present  that  is  flitting  away  from  us." 

The  use  of  symbols  in  the  development  of  his  long  stories  is 
obvious.  How  far  does  he  rely  upon  the  symbol  in  any  one  of  his 
more  effective  shorter  stories  ? 

Glance  over  several  short  stories  to  see  if  any  can  be  found  in 
which  action  is  not  subordinated  to  its  effect  on  the  character  who 
commits  it. 

Read  a  selected  chapter  or  two,  such  as  the  earlier  ones  in  "  The 
House  of  the  Seven  Gables,"  for  observation  on  Hawthorne's  style, 
particularly  on  the  quiet  play  of  humor  in  it. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER 

Whittier  (1807-1892)  stands  in  decided  contrast  both  in 
upbringing  and  in  career  with  the  other  great  New  England  con 
temporaries.  All  the  rest  were  college  men,  graduates  of  either 
Bowdoin  or  Harvard  between  1821  and  1838,  and  all  were 
familiar  from  youth  with  the  world  of  books.  Whittier  was  a 
farmJioy,  sprung  from  untutored  farming  stock,  and  in  the  way 
of  formal  schooling  had  only  two  terms  at  Haverhill  Academy, 
paid  for  with  his  own  hard  earnings.  He  was  no  less  retiring 
in  disposition  than  the  Concord  group,  yet  he  was  early  drawn 
into  the  antislavery  conflict,  and  through  all  his  middle  years 
(from  1833  to  1865)  he  was  an  untiring  man  of  affairs. 
Emerson's  interest  in  politics  ended  with  the  symbolical  value 
of  the  Concord  town  meeting ;  Thoreau's  was  registered  in  his 
spectacular  protest  (see  p.  224)  at  a  pernicious  national  policy; 
Hawthorne's  was  limited  to  the  performance  of  duties  in  posts 
at  the  disposal  of  his  political  friends ;  but  Whittier  undertook 
the  achievement  of  national  ideals  through  the  adoption  of  wise 
political  measures.  The  same  American  to  whom  Emerson 
spoke  as  a  thinker  Whittier  addressed  as  a  voter.  In  conse 
quence  of  this  his  immediate  social  value  became  greater,  though 
the  verse  written  in  behalf  of  reform  was  inferior.1  In  spite  of 
his  active  r61e  in  public  life,  however,  Whittier  was  very  much 
less  a  man  of  the  world  than  Lowell,  Holmes,  or  Longfellow. 
These  latter  were  all  men  of  family,  with  advantages  of  college 
training  and  foreign  travel.  They  were  conscious  members  of 
the  intellectual  aristocracy,  bred  in  polite  usages  and  steeped  in 
polite  literature.  When  Whittier  came  to  Boston  for  his  first 

1  See  his  own  acknowledgment  in  the  "  Proem  "  to  the  poems  of  1842. 

252 


JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  253 

brief  editorial  experience  it  was  not  to  the  Boston  of  the  charmed 
circle  to  which  they  and  their  like  belonged.  It  was  not  until  he 
had  won  independent  fame  that  he  became  their  honored  friend. 
By  birth  he  represented  an  old  and  stalwart  element  in  New 
England  life  —  the  comparatively  unlettered  pioneers  who  made 
up  the  silent  majority  of  the  population. 

He  was  in  every  sense  an  Essex  County  man.  He  was  born 
in  1807  in  the  township  of  Haverhill,  to  which  his  ancestors 
had  come  in  1638,  on  the  farm  they  had  owned  since  1647, 
in  the  house  they  had  built  in  1688.  He  lived  in  the  little 
three-mile  strip  between  the  Merrimac  and  the  New  Hampshire 
line  for  all  his  eighty-five  years,  first  at  his  birthplace,  and 
for  the  last  fifty-six  years  at  Amesbury,  a  few  miles  nearer  the 
Atlantic.  He  thus  became  in  a  way  an  embodiment  of  local 
tradition.  He  felt  the  strong  attachment  to  his  small  part  of 
the  world  that  develops  in  a  group  whose  memories  and  inter 
ests  are  almost  wholly  local,  and  he  felt  an  allegiance  to  the 
soil  that  could  respond  to  Emerson's  "  Earth  Song"  : 

They  called  me  theirs, 

Who  so  controlled  me ; 

Yet  every  one 

Wished  to  stay,  and  is  gone, 

How  am  I  theirs, 

If  they  cannot  hold  me, 

But  I  hold  them  ? 

As  a  consequence  he  described  the  homely  beauties  that 
surrounded  him,  recorded  the  traditions  of  the  region,  and 
quite  unconsciously,  as  his  rimes  often  prove,  wrote  in  its  dia 
lect  (see  p.  263).  His  sense  of  the  reality  of  his  state's  division 
into  counties  is  best  indicated  in  the  stirring  roster  which  he 
calls  in  "  Massachusetts  to  Virginia"  (11.  67-80). 

Two  other  fundamental  conditions  prevailed  in  Essex  County, 
though  no  more  strongly  than  throughout  the  entire  state.  It 
was  a  time  and  place  of  splendid  opportunities.  In  the  colonial 
centuries,  hardly  more  than  completed  when  Whittier  was  born, 


254        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

pioneer  America  had  barely  coped  with  the  elementary  prob 
lems  of  settlement.  There  still  remained  almost  everything 
that  had  to  do  with  the  alleviations  of  life  —  with  the  nicer 
refinements,  material,  intellectual,  and  aesthetic.  For  any  young 
man  who  could  combine  the  will  to  do  with  some  degree  of 
action,  the  chance  for  achievement  was  exhilarating,  —  as  the 
Essex  boys  Garrison  and  Whittier  were  to  prove.  The  religious 
impulse  of  the  day  was  closely  related  to  these  other  stimulating 
conditions.  It  had  the  momentum  of  the  generations  behind  it 
and  the  stir  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  it.  It  was  old  like  the 
country  and  new  like  the  period.  It  was  dedicated  to  a  high 
purpose,  but  its  purpose  was  more  than  the  personal  salvation 
of  the  communicant ;  it  was  the  salvation  of  Church  and  State, 
the  bringing  of  God's  kingdom  "on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 
Whittier  grew  up,  then,  in  simple  and  unlettered  surround 
ings,  comparable  to  those  of  Carlyle,  much  more  propitious  than 
those  of  Lincoln.  Like  many  another  boy  of  the  time  when 
"child  hygiene  "  was  undreamed  of,  he  probably  suffered  from 
insufficient  clothing,  unsuitable  food,  and  undue  exertion  on  the 
farm.  At  any  rate  his  vigor  was  impaired  and  he  matured, 
as  often  has  happened,  with  just  the  fragility  of  health  that 
responded  to  enforced  care  and  resulted  in  long  life.  The  read 
ing  supplied  at  home  was  arid,  —  a  few  narratives  of  frontier 
adventure,  a  few  religious  books,  "  the  Bible  towering  o'er  the 
rest,"  and  a  number  of  biographies. 

The  Lives  of  Franklin  and  of  Penn, 

Of  Fox  and  Scott,  all  worthy  men. 

The  Lives  of  Pope,  of  Young,  and  Prior, 

Of  Milton,  Addison  and  Dyer ; 

Of  Doddridge,  Fe'nelon  and  Gray, 

Armstrong,  Akenside  and  Gay. 

The  Life  of  Burroughs,  too,  I  Ve  read, 

As  big  a  rogue  as  e'er  was  made ; 

And  Tufts,  who,  I  will  be  civil, 

Was  worse  than  an  incarnate  devil. 


JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  255 

Poetry  came  to  Whittier  through  the  chance  visit  of  a  Yankee 
gypsy,  "'a  pawky  auld  carle'  of  a  wandering  Scotchman.  To 
him  I  owe  my  first  introduction  to  the  songs  of  Burns.  After 
eating  his  bread  and  cheese  and  drinking  his  mug  of  cider  he 
gave  us  Bonny  Doon,  Highland  Mary,  and  Auld  Lang  Syne." 
When  the  boy  was  fourteen  his  first  schoolmaster,  Joshua 
Coffin,  brought  a  volume  of  Burns  one  day  to  the  house  and 
was  persuaded  to  leave  it  for  a  while  as  a  loan.  With  that 
closer  introduction  to  the  world  of  poetry  Whittier's  own 
verse-writing  began. 

At  eighteen  he  composed  the  first  bit  that  was  destined  to 
appear  in  print.  It  was  an  imitation  of  Moore,  "  The  Exile's 
Departure,"  which  was  sent  without  his  knowledge  to  William 
Lloyd  Garrison's  Free  Press  at  Newburyport  and  published  in 
June,  1826.  The  young  editor,  himself  only  twenty-one,  was 
greatly  impressed  by  the  promise  of  these  lines  and  hunted 
up  the  author,  coming  to  the  farm  just  when  the  embarrassed 
youth  was  hunting  out  a  stolen  hen's  nest  under  the  barn. 
Garrison's  interest  was  of  the  greatest  importance.  Whittier 
was  encouraged  to  write  the  nearly  one  hundred  pieces  of  verse 
which  appeared  in  the  Haverhill  Gazette  in  1827  and  1828,  and 
to  earn  by  shoemaking  the  money  necessary  for  his  first  sum 
mer  term  in  the  new  Haverhill  Academy  in  1827.  The  little 
learning  he  thus  secured  he  converted  by  school-teaching  into 
enough  to  take  him  for  another  term  the  next  year,  and  then 
in  1828,  through  the  continuing  influence  of  Garrison,  he 
was  given  his  first  position  as  an  editor,  on  the  American 
Manufacturer  in  Boston.  He  was  still  a  simple  country  boy, 
and  his  published  address,  "  to  the  young  mechanics  of  New 
England,"  suggests  that  he  had  not  been  encouraged  to  forget 
this  fact  during  his  first  four  months  in  town. 

He  has  felt,  in  common  with  you  all,  the  injustice  of  that  illiberal 
feeling,  which  has  been  manifested  toward  mechanics  by  the  wealthy 
and  arrogant  of  other  classes.  He  has  felt  his  cheeks  burn,  and  his 
pulse  quicken,  when  witnessing  the  open,  undisguised  contempt  with 


256        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

which  his  friends  have  been  received  —  not  from  any  defect  in  their 
moral  character,  their  minds,  or  their  persons,  but  simply  because  they 
depended  upon  their  own  exertions  for  their  means  of  existence,  and 
upon  their  own  industry  and  talents  for  a  passport  to  public  favor. 

He  held  his  post  here  only  from  January  to  August,  1829, 
when  he  was  summoned  home  by  his  father's  illness.  Editor 
ship  of  the  Haverhill  Gazette  followed  for  the  first  half  of  1830, 
when  he  was  called  to  the  New  England  Review  in  Hartford, 
Connecticut.  This  position  he  occupied  with  one  interruption 
until  the  end  of  1831,  at  which  time  he  took  his  leave  of 
journalism. 

He  was  twenty-four  years  old  —  in  the  restless  period  between 
youth  and  real  manhood.  He  had  known  little  but  hardship 
and  had  come  out  of  it  with  impaired  health.  There  was  little 
to  cheer  him  in  the  tragic  career  of  Burns,  in  the  almost  des 
perate  enthusiasm  of  Garrison,  or  in  the  cynicism  of  Byron,  to 
which  he  had  lately  become  subject.  To  cap  all,  he  had  been 
"  crossed  in  love."  He  could  not  even  have  the  grim  comfort 
of  realizing  that  he  was  passing  through  a  youthful  phase  when 
he  wrote  to  a  friend : 

Disappointment  in  a  thousand  ways  has  gone  over  my  heart,  and 
left  it  dust.  Yet  I  still  look'  forward  with  high  anticipations.  I  have 
placed  the  goal  of  my  ambitions  high  —  but  with  the  blessing  of  God 
it  shall  be  reached.  The  world  has  at  last  breathed  into  my  bosom  a 
portion  of  its  own  bitterness,  and  I  now  feel  as  if  I  would  wrestle 
manfully  in  the  strife  of  men.  If  my  life  is  spared,  the  world  shall 
know  me  in  a  loftier  capacity  than  as  a  writer  of  rhymes.  There  — 
is  not  that  boasting  ?  —  But  I  have  said  it  with  a  strong  pulse  and  a 
swelling  heart,  and  I  shall  strive  to  realize  it. 

This  temporary  abandonment  of  poetry  was  after  all  only  an 
evidence  of  his  regard  for  it.  With  all  the  other  young  writers 
of  his  day,  he  was  hoping  for  new  achievement  in  American 
literature  and  wondering  in  the  back  of  his  mind  if  he  were 
not  to  be  a  contributor  to  it.  At  the  moment  Bryant  had  turned 
to  journalism  the  New  England  group  were  not  yet  articulate, 


JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  257 

and  the  call  of  politics  was  loud.  "  There  was  nowhere  in 
America  a  writer  of  verse  with  more  immediate  promise  than 
Whittier,  [yet]  he  was.  a  sick  man  in  the  old  house  at  the  back 
of  Job's  Hill,  disgusted  with  poetry  and  planning  how  he  could 
best  get  to  Congress." 

Once  more  Garrison's  influence  was  to  determine  him.  The 
general  inclination  toward  humanitarian  reform  had  stirred  him 
to  the  establishment  of  the  Liberator,  and  when  he  declared, 
"  I  am  in  earnest — I  will  not  equivocate  —  I  will  not  excuse  — 
I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch  —  AND  I  WILL  BE  HEARD,"  he 
found  a  natural  ally  in  Whittier.  The  great  step  came  in  1833 
with  the  poet's  publication  at  his  own  expense  of  the  pamphlet 
"Justice  and  Expediency,"  with  its  wider  circulation  through 
reprints  by  sympathizers,  with  the  controversial  sequels,  and 
with  his  share  in  the  founding  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society.  In  the  years  to  come  he  said,  "I  set  a  higher  value 
on  my  name  as  appended  to  the  Anti-Slavery  Declaration  of 
1833,  than  on  the  title-page  of  any  book."  It  was  the  deepest 
test  of  courage.  In  the  first  place  it  meant  that  a  sensitive 
young  poet  who  had  already  felt  the  injustice  of  the  conserva 
tive  classes  must  lay  himself  open  to  their  contempt  and  ridi 
cule.  It  was  a  bitter  time  to  do  this,  for  never  was  a  day  when 
the  miscellaneous  inclination  to  reform  offered  so  great  an 
array  of  amusing  causes  and  champions.  Emerson's  derisive 
list,  "  Madmen,  madwomen,  men  with  beards,  Bunkers,  Mug- 
gletonians,  Come-outers,  Groaners,  Agrarians,  Seventh-Day- 
Baptists,  Quakers,  Abolitionists,  Calvinists,  Unitarians  and 
Philosophers,"  is  evidence  of  the  degree  to  which  the  general 
idea  of  reform  had  been  discredited  even  in  the  most  liberal 
minds.  For  there  is  no  doubt  that  many  of  the  projects  were 
foolish  or  that  the  hopes  reposed  in  them  as  social  cure-alls 
were  ridiculous.  But  the  adoption  of  the  abolition  cause  in 
volved  far  more  than  ridicule  —  nothing  less  than  the  com- 
pletest  disapproval  of  most  good  citizens.  Considered  in  the 
large,  lawyers  and  clergymen  are  conservatives  by  profession, 


258        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

deeply  committed  to  the  past;  and  here  was  slavery  sanctioned 
in  the  law  and  the  gospel.  The  prosperous  merchant  and 
banker  are  never  markedly  eager  for  a  change  from  the  con 
ditions  which  have  fostered  their  prosperity ;  and  here  was  a 
whole  economic  system,  from  the  plantations  of  the  South  to 
the  financial  houses  of  Wall  Street  and  State  Street,  erected 
on  a  foundation  of  slave  labor.  According  to  Emerson  cotton 
thread  held  the  Union  together.  Men  might  devote  their  lives 
to  the  substitution  of  hooks  and  eyes  for  buttons  or  the  adop 
tion  of  a  vegetarian  diet,  and  get  their  pay  in  laughter,  but 
when  they  threatened  to  disturb  the  industrial  system  they 
were  pelted  and  hated  and  cursed.  All  this  Whittier  foresaw 
when  he  followed  his  own  counsel  of  later  years,  "  My  lad,  if 
thou  wouldst  win  success,  join  thyself  to  some  unpopular  but 
noble  cause."  The  history  of  his  participation  in  the  abolition 
movement  does  not  belong  to  such  a  chapter  as  this  except  for 
a  record  of  how  he  used  his  literary  powers  for  the  good  of  the 
cause,  and  for  a  comment  on  the  kind  of  poetry  that  inevitably 
resulted  from  such  use. 

Between  1831  and  1833  Whittier  had  become  intelligently 
interested  in  politics ;  indeed,  had  he  been  a  few  months  older 
in  the  autumn  of  1832  it  is  possible  that  he  might  have  been 
elected  to  Congress  as  a  compromise  candidate  when  Caleb 
Cushing  was  unable  to  secure  the  seat  for  himself,  though 
strong  enough  to  prevent  the  choice  of  an  opponent.  The 
young  poet  had  thus  learned  a  good  deal  about  the  value  of 
public  opinion  and  about  the  power  of  publicity  in  molding 
and  wielding  it.  When  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society 
was  formed  he  had  at  his  hand  a  great  megaphone  that  could 
project  his  voice  to  the  far  districts  of  the  country.  As  a 
writer  of  propagandist  verse  he  was  endowed  with  what  in  an 
orator  would  be  a  "  natural  speaking  voice."  His  convictions 
were  deep  and  sincere,  he  had  an  easy  command  of  simple 
rhythms,  and  he  was  used  to  thinking  and  speaking  in  the 
language  of  the  people.  He  was  in  no  danger  of  falling  into 


JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  259 

academic  subtlety  or  erudition.  So,  like  his  greatest  American 
predecessor  in  this  field — Freneau  (see  pp.  72-77) — he  spoke 
again  and  again  and  always  with  telling  effect. 

As  a  good  journalist  and  rhetorician  he  made  his  issues 
plain  and  simple  —  much  simpler  in  fact  than  they  really 
were,  avoiding  embarrassing  qualifications.  He  appealed  to 
the  Northerners  as  a  people  unanimously  opposed  to  human 
bondage  and  not  as  a  half-hearted  and  divided  group.  In  a 
generation  when  the  sense  of  statehood  was  infinitely  stronger 
than  it  is  now  he  assumed  a  high  level  of  altruism  in  Massa 
chusetts,  while  he  stimulated  a  sense  of  state  resentment  against 
Virginia  or  South  Carolina.  With  the  memories  of  the  Revo 
lution  refreshed  by  a  series  of  recent  semicentennials,  he  em 
ployed  the  conventional  language  of  protest  against  tyranny; 
the  antislavery  verses  resound  with  vituperative  allusions  to 
chains,  fetters,  yokes,  rods,  manacles,  and  gyves,  with  Scriptural 
idiom  and  with  scorn  for  the  repudiation  of  Revolutionary 
principles  of  freedom.  In  the  opening  lines  of  "  The  Crisis  " 
he  was  skillfully  suggestive  by  his  paraphrase  of  the  mis 
sionary  hymn  "  From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains,"  and  in  the 
"  Letter  from  a  Missionary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  in  Kansas  to  a  Distinguished  Politician  "  he  turned  to 
contempt  the  ,perversion  of  the  Scriptures  in  defense  of  slavery. 

"  Go  it,  old  hoss  !  "  they  cried,  and  cursed  the  niggers  — 
Fulfilling  thus  the  word  of  prophecy, 
"  Cursed  be  Canaan." 

All  this  was  justifiable,  though  it  frequently  was  anything 
but  high  art.  At  times,  however,  the  heat  of  passion  led 
Whittier  to  write  lines  for  which  there  was  little  or  no  excuse. 
His  disappointment  at  Webster's  famous  "  Seventh  of  March  " 
compromise  speech  in  1850  led  him  to  the  extreme  of  reproach 
which  was  felt  by  most  of  the  North  —  an  extreme  from  which 
he  shared  the  common  reaction  of  later  years  and  for  which 
he  made  the  manly  atonement  of  "  The  Lost  Occasion,"  moved 


260        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

by  "  the  consciousness  of  a  common  inheritance  of  frailty  and 
weakness."  The  lowest  level  of  his  war  verse  is  reached  in 
the  most  familiar  "  Barbara  Frietchie."  This  has  all  the  attri 
butes  that  are  usually  to  be  found  in  popular  favorites.  It  is 
conventional  in  form,  easily  intelligible,  a  narrative  of  pictu 
resque  tableaux,  and  capped  with  an  applied  moral.  The  only 
charge  that  can  be  fairly  brought  against  it  is,  however,  a 
fundamental  one  —  that  it  is  essentially  false  to  the  facts.  The 
middle  third  of  the  poem  that  has  to  do  explicitly  with  Stone 
wall  Jackson  is  partly  libelous  and  partly  ridiculous.  Jackson 
was  an  honest  and  devoted  man,  but  he  is  represented  as 
coming  through  the  town  like  a  stock-melodrama  villain, 
blushing  with  remorse  at  the  challenge  of  Barbara  and  cap 
ping  the  climax  with  a  burst  of  cheap  and  unsoldierly  rhetoric. 
No  doubt  it  expressed  at  the  moment  what  the  passions  of 
war  could  lead  even  a  gentle  Quaker  to  believe ;  no  doubt 
also  it  was  good  war  journalism  ;  but  granting  these  conces 
sions,  it  stands  as  a  deplorable  evidence  of  the  depths  to 
which  noble  talents  can  be  degraded  in  the  times  that  try 
men's  souls. 

"The  Waiting,"  a  poem  of  1862,  is  in  the  loftier  vein  of 
one  who  does  not  reenforce  himself  through  disparagement  of 
his  enemies.  It  is  a  lament  of  unfulfilled  endeavor  in  behalf 
of  an  ideal  cause.  As  a  really  great  lyric  should  be,  it  is  both 
personal  and  general  in  its  application.  It  expresses  the 
despondency  of  the  enfeebled  and  aging  poet  that  he  could 
not  join  "  the  shining  ones  with  plumes  of  snow "  in  the 
good  fight ;  and  in  its  reference  to  "  the  harder  task  of 
standing  still  "  it  alludes  not  only  to  his  resignation  at  the 
moment  but  also  to  the  patient  policy  which  in  former  years 
had  estranged  the  extremest  abolitionists  from  him.  It  also 
must  have  been  an  immediate  source  of  consolation  to  thou 
sands  who  have  been  confronted  by  urgent  duties  they  could 
not  perform  ;  while  at  the  same  time  in  a  broader  way  it  has 
expressed  the  faith  of  "Ulysses"  and  "  Abt  Vogler,"  of  "In 


JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  261 

Memoriam "  and  "Saul"  and   "Asolando,"  that  "good  but 
wished  with  God  is  done." 

Like  Freneau  (see  pp.  71-81),  but  to  a  more  marked 
degree,  Whittier  was  most  popular  at  first  for  his  journalistic, 
controversial  poems,  though  his  most  permanent  work  has 
nothing  to  do  with  either  noble  or  ignoble  strife.  He  followed 
the  example  of  Burns,  who  inspired  his  first  literary  passion, 
in  writing  simple  lyrics  and  narratives  of  his  own  countryside. 
These  included  many  of  the  legends  of  Boston,  like  "  Cas 
sandra  Southwick,"  of  Hartford;  like  "Abraham  Davenport," 
or  of  his  beloved  district  north  of  Boston ;  like  "  The  Wreck 
of  Rivermouth,"  "  The  Garrison  of  Cape  Ann,"  and  "  Skipper 
Ireson's  Ride."  As  a  rule  he  was  not  inclined  to  tell  stories 
without  some  clear  moral  implication,  and  all  too  often  he 
expounded  this  implication,  sermon-wise,  at  the  end.  Thus 
he  tells  with  dignity  and  fine  effect  the  story  of  the  Indian 
specters  of  Cape  Ann,  who  were  finally  driven  away  by  the 
prayers  of  the  devout  garrison  after  repeated  volleys  from 
their  musketry  had  failed.  In  eighty  lines  the  tale  is  told ;  an 
added  stanza  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  is  a  moral 
in  the  ancient  fiction ;  and  two  more  in  a  sort  of  sub-postscript 
indulge  in  a  final  burst  of  poetical  exegesis.  "  Skipper  Ireson," 
the  best  of  Whittier's  ballads,  is  no  less  moralistic,  but  is  done 
with  more  art,  for  the  ethical  point  is  developed  within  the 
account  instead  of  being  tacked  on  after  it. 

In  poems  such  as  "  Hampton  Beach,"  "  The  Lakeside," 
"The  Last  Walk  in  Autumn,"  and  "At  Eventide"  Whittier 
pictures  the  nature  surroundings  of  his  long  lifetime ;  and  in 
a  generous  succession,  from  "Memories"  of  1841  to  "In 
School-Days,"  of  nearly  thirty  years  later,  he  takes  his  readers 
along  the  borderlands  of  autobiography.  Preeminent  among 
his  recollections  of  persons  and  places  is  "  Snow-Bound."  The 
snowstorm,  which  Emerson  celebrated  as  a  thing  in  itself, 
Whittier  adopted  as  the  background  for  a  winter  idyl.  The 
"  Flemish  pictures  of  old  days  "  which  he  drew  of  his  Haverhill 


262        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

homestead  were  annotated  in  great  detail  by  the  poet,  but  their 
virtue  lies  not  so  much  in  the  fact  that  they  are  true  to  a  given 
set  of  conditions,  as  that  they  are  essentially  true  to  the  rural 
life  of  Whittier's  New  England  —  just  as  the  pictures  in  "  The 
Cotter's  Saturday  Night "  are  true  to  the  Scotland  of  Burns, 
and  the  pictures  of  "  The  Deserted  Village  "  to  the  landlord- 
ridden  Ireland  of  Goldsmith.  And  to  the  attentive  reader  the 
contrasts  between  the  peasant  life  of  Great  Britain  and  the 
nearest  thing  to  it  that  can  be  found  in  America  are  abiding 
witnesses  to  the  practical  virtues  of  a  democracy.  In  this  simple 
idyl,  written  with  "  intimate  knowledge  and  delight,"  Whittier 
combined  truth  and  beauty  as  in  no  other  of  his  poems. 

For  summarized  criticism  of  Whittier's  poetry  there  are  few 
better  passages  than  his  own  "  Proem  "  to  the  collected  poems 
of  1849  and  the  comment  in  Lowell's  "Fable  for  Critics," 
of  the  preceding  year.  Whittier  acknowledges  the  lack  in  his 
lines  of  "  mystic  beauty,  dreamy  grace  "  or  of  psychological  an 
alysis  converted  into  poetry;  Lowell  confirms  the  judgment  with 

Let  his  mind  once  get  head  in  its  favorite  direction 
And  the  torrent  of  verse  bursts  the  dams  of  reflection, 
While,  borne  with  the  rush  of  his  metre  along, 
The  poet  may  chance  to  go  right  or  go  wrong, 
Content  with  the  whirl  and  delirium  of  song. 

Whittier  lays  his  best  gifts  on  the  shrine  of  freedom  with  an 
avowal  of  his  love  for  mankind  and  his  hearty  and  vehement 
hatred  of  all  forms  of  oppression,  and  Lowell  properly  qualifies 
the  value  of  these  gifts  with  the  statement  that  the  Quaker's 
fervor  has  sometimes  dulled  him  to  the  distinction  between 
"  simple  excitement  and  pure  inspiration."  Whittier  deprecates 
the  harshness  and  rigor  of  the  rhythms  which-  beat  "  Labor's 
hurried  time,  or  Duty's  rugged  march,"  but  Lowell  says  that 
at  his  best  the  reformer-poet  has  written  unsurpassable  lyrics. 
And  both  pronounce  strictures  on  his  rimes  which  have  been 
conventionally  repeated  by  most  of  the  later  critics  who  have 
commented  on  them  at  all. 


JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  263 

Many  of  Whittier's  apparently  false  rimes,  however,  —  as 
the  author  of  the  "  Biglow  Papers  "  should  have  recognized  — 
are  perfect  if  uttered  according  to  the  prevailing  pronunciation 
of  his  district.  Lowell  passes  for  a  scrupulous  dialect  expert 
when  he  writes,  "This  heth  my  faithful  shepherd  ben,"  but 
Whittier  is  derided  for  allowing  the  same  final  verb  to  rime 
with  "  Of  all  sad  words  of  tongue  or  pen,"  whereas  the  sole 
difference  is  that  one  recognized  the  pronunciation  in  his 
spelling  and  the  other  took  it  for  granted.  If  Whittier  had 
employed  Lowell's  method,  in  transcribing  "  Barbara  Frietchie," 
for  example,  he  would  have  written, 

Quick,  as  it  fell,  from  the  broken  sta  'af 
Dame  Barbara  snatched  the  silken  sea  'af, 

and  he  would  have  concluded  with 

Peace  and  odda  and  beauty  drawr 
Reound  thy  symbol  of  light  and  lawr ; 

And  evva  the  stabs  above  look  deown 
On  thy  stahs  below  in  Frederick  teown ! 

For  the  ou  sounds  belong  to  Essex  County,  and  all  the  others 
to  Boston  and  even  to  hallowed  Cambridge.  False  rimes 
Whittier  wrote  in  abundance,  but  by  no  means  all  of  the 
apparently  bad  ones  should  be  condemned  at  first  glance. 
Until  the  publication  of  "Snow-Bound"  in  1866  Whittier's 
verse,  though  widely  circulated,  had  brought  him  in  but  little 
money  return.  For  twenty  years,  he  later  recalled,  he  had  been 
given  the  cold  shoulder  by  editors  and  publishers ;  but  as  the 
hottest  prejudices  began  to  wane  they  could  no  longer  afford 
to  neglect  his  manuscripts,  for  these  had  in  them  the  leading 
characteristics  of  "  fireside  favorites,"  the  only  sort  of  poetry 
that  is  always  certain  of  the  sales  to  which  no  publisher  is 
indifferent.  In  the  first  place,  their  form  is  simple ;  common 
words  and  short  sentences  are  cast  in  conventional  rhythms 
with  frequent  rime.  They  are  therefore  easy  to  commit  to 
memory.  In  content  they  are  easy  to  understand,  not  given 


264       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

to  subtleties  of  analysis  or  to  philosphical  abstractions.  More 
often  than  not  they  are  either  narratives  like  the  war  ballads 
and  the  New  England  chronicles  or  strung  on  a  narrative 
thread  like  "  Snow-Bound."  Almost  always  they  contain  vivid 
pictures;  mention  of  "Skipper  Ireson "  or  "Telling  the 
Bees  "  or  "  The  Huskers  "  or  "  Maud  Muller  "  recalls  tableaux 
first  and  then  the  ideas  connected  with  them.  And  finally 
they  contain  the  applied  moral  which  the  immature  or  the 
unliterary  mind  dearly  loves,  the  very  feature  which  proves 
irksome  to  the  bookish  reader  serving  as  an  added  attraction 
to  the  unsophisticated  one.  It  is  not  difficult  to  adduce  popu 
lar  favorites  which  do  not  include  all  of  these  traits,  but  be 
yond  doubt  the  great  majority  of  poems  that  are  beloved  by 
the  multitude  contain  most  if  not  all  of  them.  When,  in 
addition  to  these  features,  poems  are  essentially  and  perma 
nently  true  to  life  and  to  the  best  there  is  in  life  their  vogue 
is  likely  to  be  lasting  as  well  as  widespread.  People  cherish 
them  as  they  do  the  melodies  to  which  some  of  them  are 
fortunately  set,  or  as  they  do  certain  bits  from  Beethoven, 
Mendelssohn,  Chopin,  and  Schubert,  which  belong  to  the  reper 
tory  of  every  pianola  or  talking  machine.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  intricate  beauties  of  Browning  and  Wagner  or  the  austerities 
of  Milton  and  Brahms  will  always  be  "caviar  to  the  general." 
The  last  third  of  Whittier's  life  brought  him  the  rewards  he 
had  earned  and  the  serenity  he  deserved.  He  lived  quietly  at 
Amesbury  under  his  own  roof  or  with  his  cousins  at  near-by 
Danvers.  He  was  on  friendly  terms  with  the  eminent  literary 
men  and  women  of  his  day.  A  long  protraction  of  ill-health 
from  boyhood  on  had  developed  him  into  a  fragile,  gentle  old 
man,  a  little  shy  and  reticent  and  to  all  appearances  quite 
without  the  fighting  powers  which  he  had  displayed  when 
there  was  need  for  them.  If  one  chooses  to  recall  Whittier 
from  a  single  portrait,  it  should  be  from  one  taken  in  his 
middle  rather  than  in  his  later  life,  for  the  earlier  ones  are 
far  more  rugged. 


JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER  265 

As  the  years  passed  they  were  marked  by  a  succession  of 
public  tributes.  At  seventy  the  most  famous  of  the  annual 
"Atlantic  Monthly  Dinners  "  was  arranged  in  his  honor.  At 
eighty  his  home  state  officially  celebrated  his  birthday.  The 
anniversaries  that  followed  were  recognized  in  the  public 
schools  of  many  states;  and  so  with  "honor,  love,  obedience, 
troops  of  friends"  he  came  to  the  end  in  1892. 


BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER.  Works.  Riverside  Edition.  7  vols. 
(I-IV,  Poetical  works;  V-VII,  Prose.)  Standard  Library  Edition. 
9  vols.  (Includes  content  of  the  Riverside  Edition  plus  the  life  by 
S.  T.  Pickard.)  1 892.  The  best  one-volume  edition  of  the  poems  is 
the  Cambridge  Student's  Edition.  1914.  His  works  appeared  in 
book  form  originally  as  follows:  Legends  of  New  England,  1831; 
Moll  Pitcher,  1832;  Justice  and  Expediency,  1833;  Mogg  Megone, 
1836;  Poems  written  between  1830  and  1838,  1837;  Ballads,  Anti- 
Slavery  Poems,  etc.,  1838;  Lays  of  my  Home,  1843  ;  The  Stranger 
in  Lowell,  1845 ;  Supernaturalism  in  New  England,  1847;  Voices  of 
Freedom,  1849;  Old  Portraits  and  Modern  Sketches,  1850;  Songs 
of  Labor,  1850  ;  The  Chapel  of  the  Hermits,  1853  ;  Literary  Recrea 
tions  and  Miscellanies,  1854;  The  Panorama,  1856;  Home  Ballads, 
1860;  In  War  Time,  1863;  National  Lyrics,  1865;  Snow-Bound, 
1866;  The  Tent  on  the  Beach,  1867;  Among  the  Hills,  1868; 
Miriam,  1870;  The  Pennsylvania  Pilgrim,  1872;  Hazel  Blossoms, 
1874;  Centennial  Hymn,  1876;  The  Vision  of  Echard,  1878;  The 
King's  Missive,  1881;  The  Bay  of  Seven  Islands,  1883;  Saint 
Gregory's  Guest,  1886;  At  Sundown,  1892. 

Bibliography 

Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  436-451. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  Samuel  T.  Pickard.    1894.    2  vols. 

BURTON,  RICHARD.   John  Greenleaf  Whittier.   1901. 
CARPENTER,  G.  R.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier.   1903.   (A.M.L.  Ser.} 
CLAFLIN,  MRS.  MARY  B.    Personal  Recollections  of  John  Greenlea-f 

Whittier.   1893. 

FIELDS,  MRS.  ANNIE.    Authors  and  Friends.   1896. 
FLOWER,  B.  O.   Whittier,  Prophet,  Seer  and  Man.    1896. 
HAWKINS,  C.  J.    The  Mind  of  Whittier.   1904. 


266        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Cheerful  Yesterdays. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Contemporaries. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.   John  Greenleaf  Whittier.    1902.   (E.M.L.Ser.) 

KENNEDY,  W.  S.    John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  his  Life,  Genius  and 

Writings.    1882. 

LAWTON,  W.  C.    Studies  in  the  New  England  Poets.   1898. 
LINTON,  W.  J.    Life  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier.    1903. 
PAYNE,  W.  M.    Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II, 

Bk.  II,  chap.  xiii. 

PICKARD,  S.  T.  Whittier  Land.   1904. 
RICHARDSON,  C.  F.    American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  chap.  vi. 
STEDMAN,  E.  C.    Poets  of  America.   1885. 
TAYLOR,  BAYARD.    Critical  Essays  and  Literary  Notes.    1880. 
UNDERWOOD,  F.  H.   John  Greenleaf  Whittier:  a  Biography.   1884. 
WENDELL,  BARRETT.   Stelligeri  and  Other  Essays.    1893. 
WHITMAN,  WALT.    Specimen  Days.   April  16,  1881. 


TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  poems  in  Whittier  the  titles  of  which  suggest  local  treat 
ment  of  Essex  County  life  and  scenes.  Compare  these  with  similar 
poems  in  Burns. 

Read  such  poems  as  "  First-Day  Thoughts,"  "  Skipper  Ireson's 
Ride,"  "  The  Garrison  of  Cape  Ann,"  "  The  Waiting,"  "  The  Eternal- 
Goodness,"  and  "  Our  Master  "  for  evidences  of  Whittier's  religion. 

Read  Emerson's  essay  on  "  The  New  England  Reformers," 
remembering  that  Whittier  was  one  of  these. 

Compare  the  war  poetry  of  Whittier  and  Freneau. 

In  Whittier's  controversial  poetry  note  the  different  levels  of 
"  Barbara  Frietchie,"  "  Expostulation,"  and  "  The  Waiting,"  and  cite 
other  poems  which  may  fairly  be  located  in  these  three  classes. 

Read  Whittier's  ballads  with  the  comments  on  page  261  concern 
ing  his  inclination  to  expound.  Compare  and  contrast  Whittier's 
"  Snow-Bound  "  with  Burns's  "  Cotter's  Saturday  Night." 

Apply  the  tests  for  popular  fireside  poetry  to  those  poems  of 
Whittier's  which  you  regard  as  general  favorites. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  practice  to  mention  Henry  Wads- 
worth  Longfellow  (1807-1882)  as  a  member  of  "the  Cambridge 
group,"  with  the  suggestion  that  there  was  some  such  agreement 
in  point  of  view  as  existed  between  the  men  who  lived  and  wrote 
in  Concord.  Yet  there  was  no  such  oneness  of  mind  among 
Longfellow,  Lowell,  and  Holmes  as  among  Emerson  and  his 
younger  associates.  Between  Longfellow  and  Lowell  the  real 
point  of  contact  was  their  scholarship,  and  particularly  their 
enthusiasm  for  the  writings  of  Dante;  between  Lowell  and 
Holmes  there  was  neighborly  regard  but  no  real  intimacy  of 
feeling.  The  Cambridge  men,  to  be  sure,  were  different  from 
the  men  of  Concord.  The  fathers  of  all  three  were  professional 
gentlemen  of  some  distinction,  all  were  college  bred,  ripened 
by  residence  abroad,  and  holders  of  professorships  in  Harvard 
College.  All  enjoyed  and  deserved  social  position  as  members 
of  the  "  Brahmin  caste,"  l  all  were  frequenters  of  the  celebrated 
Saturday  Club,  and  all  contributed  to  the  early  and  lasting  fame 
of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  But  as  far  as  their  deeper  interests 
in  life  were  concerned  they  went  their  several  ways.  Lowell 
was  a  representative  first  of  New  England  and  the  North  and 
later  of  the  country  as  a  whole ;  Holmes  belonged  far  more  to 
Boston  than  to  the  college  town  across  the  Charles ;  so  that,  of 
the  three,  Longfellow,  the  only  one  not  born  there,  was  most 
closely  associated  with  Cambridge,  less  clearly  allied  with  any 
other  part  of  the  world.  In  the  literary  vista,  therefore,  the  local 
relationship  should  not  loom  too  large.  Longfellow  should  be 

1  See  the  first  chapter  of  Holmes's  "  Elsie  Venner  "  for  a  discussion  of  this 
New  England  aristocracy  of  birth  and  learning  rather  than  of  wealth. 

267 


268        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

considered  as  belonging  to  the  same  decades  with  Poe  and 
Hawthorne ;  his  greatest  productive  period  was  at  its  height  when 
Poe  was  living,  and  was  over  before  the  death  of  Hawthorne, 
and  his  attitude  toward  life  was  similar  to  theirs  in  its  senti 
mental  fervor  and  in  its  artistic  detachment.  Lowell,  in  contrast, 
was  a  factor  in  the  issues  leading  into  and  out  of  the  Civil  War, 
and  Holmes's  richest  years  bridged  the  '6o's. 

Longfellow  was  born  in  Portland,  Maine,  in  1 807,  the  second 
of  eight  children.  The  matters  of  conventional  record  are  that 
on  his  mother's  side  he  was  descended  from  John  and  Priscilla 
Alden,  and  that  his  father  was  a  lawyer  with  a  good  practice 
and  a  modestly  well-equipped  library.  Able  tutoring  fitted  the 
boy  to  matriculate  as  a  sophomore  in  Bowdoin,  in  the  class  with 
Hawthorne,  who  was  three  years  older.  For  a  coming  man  of 
letters  his  record  as  a  student  was  exceptionally  good.  Instead 
of  being  unsettled  by  vague  dreams,  he  was  stirred  by  a  very 
definite  ambition  for  "  future  eminence  in  literature."  His  whole 
soul,  he  wrote  to  his  father  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  burned 
most  ardently  for  it,  and  every  earthly  thought  centered  in  it. 
Then,  just  at  the  time  when  he  was  resigning  himself  to  the 
law,  in  order  not  to  be,  like  Goldsmith,  "  equally  irreclaimable 
from  poetry  and  poverty,"  the  trustees  of  Bowdoin,  emulating 
the  example  of  Harvard,  established  a  professorship  of  modern 
languages,  offered  it  to  Longfellow,  and  set  as  a  condition  that 
he  should  prepare  himself  by  study  abroad.  In  the  three  years 
from  1826  to  1829  his  mastering  of  the  Romance  languages  was 
perhaps  less  important  than  his  breathing  the  cultural  atmos 
phere  of  the  Old  World.  Life  in  America  up  to  the  nineteenth 
century  had  been  a  busy  and  self-centered  experience.  The 
chief  consciousness  of  England  and  Europe  had  been  a  con 
sciousness  of  other  governments  and  of  unsympathetic  and 
conflicting  loyalties ;  and  now  was  beginning  to  arise  an  aware 
ness  not  only  of  how  other  peoples  were  ruled  but  also  of  how 
they  lived  and  what  they  were  thinking  about.  Longfellow  had 
little  to  say  of  foreign  unfriendliness  which  was  still  disturbing 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  269 

Irving  and  Cooper  and  Bryant  (see  pp.  111-114).  In  preparing 
to  teach  foreign  languages  and  literatures  he  yielded  to  the 
spell  of  their  richly  picturesque  traditions  ;  and  his  first  work, 
"Outre-Mer"  (1833),  was  an  effort  to  expound  these  to  his 
countrymen.  This,  too,  Irving  and  Cooper  had  done,  and  from 
now  on  the  refrain  was  to  be  taken  up  by  most  of  the  widely 
read  American  writers.1 

As  an  impressionable  young  American  he  fell  into  the  declin 
ing  sentimentalism  of  the  period  and  wrote  characteristically  to 
his  mother  :  "  I  look  forward  to  the  distant  day  of  our  meeting 
until  my  heart  swells  into  my  throat  and  tears  into  my  eyes. 
I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  is  a  pardonable  weakness."  He 
was  so  absorbed  by  all  he  was  seeing  and  learning  that  he  wrote 
no  verse,  letting  the  days  go  by  until  he  concluded  with  the 
overwhelming  seriousness  of  twenty-two  that  his  poetic  career 
was  finished.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  was  just  complementing 
his  native  American  feeling  with  a  sense  of  the  glamour  of 
Old  World  civilization,  and  was  on  the  way  toward  combining 
the  two  as  poet  and  professor.  Returning  to  his  old  college  he 
taught  there  until  in  1836  he  was  invited  to  succeed  Professor 
George  Ticknor  at  Harvard,  again  with  the  condition  —  implied 
if  not  imposed  —  that  he  go  abroad  for  study.  On  his  second 
sojourn  he  extended  his  knowledge  to  the  Germanic  languages, 
mastering  them  as  thoroughly  as  he  had  French,  Spanish,  and 
Italian.  In  the  end  he  is  said  to  have  had  a  fluent  speaking 
control  of  eight  tongues,  with  the  power  to  "  get  along  in  "  six 
more,  and  to  read  yet  another  six.  Until  1854  he  was  engaged 
in  his  duties  at  Harvard,  giving  no  little  instruction,  engaging 

1  A  short  list  of  the  chief  titles  will  include  Longfellow's  "  Hyperion " 
(1839),  Willis's  "  Loiterings  of  Travel "  (1840),  Taylor's  "  Views  Afoot "  (1846), 
Curtis's  "  Nile  Notes  of  a  Howadji "  (1851),  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Sunny  Memories  of 
Foreign  Lands  "  (1854),  Emerson's  "  English  Traits  "  (1856),  Bryant's  "  Letters 
from  Spain  and  Other  Countries  "  (1859),  Norton's  "  Notes  of  Travel  and  Study 
in  Italy  "  (1859),  Hawthorne's  "  Our  Old  Home  "  (1863),  Howells's  "  Venetian 
Life"  (1866),  Mark  Twain's  "Innocents  Abroad"  (1869),  and  so  on  down  to 
and  beyond  Holmes's  "  Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe"  (1887). 


270        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

all  his  assistants,  and  personally  supervising  their  teaching.  It 
was  an  irksome  routine  against  which  he  began  to  rebel  many 
years  before  he  shook  himself  free.  "It  is  too  much  to  do  for 
one's  daily  bread,  when  one  can  live  on  so  little,"  he  wrote  in 
1839.  "  I  must  learn  to  give  up  superfluous  things  and  devote 
myself  wholly  to  literature."  And  in  the  same  year  he  re 
ferred  in  another  letter  to  "  poetic  dreams  shaded  by  French 
irregular  verbs." 

If  the  distractions  of  his  professorship  had  actually  prevented 
all  writing,  he  would  doubtless  not  have  held  it  eighteen  years ; 
but  in  spite  of  handicaps  his  output  was  fairly  steady  through 
out,  and  his  most  richly  productive  period — 1847-1863  — 
half  overlapped  his  Harvard  service.  Aside  from  his  fruitful 
activities  in  formulating  books  and  methods  for  language  study, 
and  aside  from  his  unimpressive  prose  volumes  "  Outre-Mer," 
"Hyperion,"  and  "Kavanagh,"  his  poetry  was  abundant  and  in 
a  way  progressive.  Most  memorable  among  the  early  types  was 
a  sizeable  group  to  which  he  referred  in  his  diary  and  letters 
as  "psalms."  Of  these,  of  course,  "A  Psalm  of  Life"  is  best 
known.  Like  all  the  others  of  its  sort,  it  has  the  traits  that 
are  sure  to  endear  it  to  the  multitude.  It  is  in  a  conventional 
ballad  meter,  alternating  lines  of  four  and  three  stresses  with  al 
ternating  rimes,  it  is  easy  to  understand,  it  is  constructed  around 
one  vivid  picture,  and  it  conveys  a  wholesome  moral  lesson. 
It  is  a  general  counsel  to  industry  and  fortitude.  Its  message 
is  formulated  in  a  closing  stanza  of  "The  Light  of  Stars," 

And  thou,  too,  whosoe'er  thou  art, 

That  readest  this  brief  psalm, 
As  one  by  one  thy  hopes  depart, 

Be  resolute  and  calm, 

and  its  "  act  in  the  living  present "  is  echoed  in  the  daily 
achievement  of  the  village  blacksmith. 

Longfellow's  labors  as  a  translator  began  early  and  continued 
throughout  his  career,  but  it  is  interesting  to  see  that  in  the 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  271 

earlier  efforts  a  sober  ethical  note  prevails,  whereas  many  of 
the  later  translations  are  marked  by  simple  charm  and  some 
by  sheer  frivolity.  "  The  Coplas  de  Don  Jorge  Manrique  "  is 
a  transparently  veiled  homily  on  the  vanity  of  human  wishes ; 
others  from  the  Spanish  are  on  "  The  Good  Shepherd  "  and 
"  The  Image  of  God  "  and  from  Dante  on  "  The  Celestial 
Pilot"  and  ''The  Terrestrial  Paradise";  there  is  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  passage  on  "  The  Grave "  and  a  fragment  from  a 
German  ballad  in  which  a  ribald  discussion  of  "  The  Happiest 
Land  "  is  interrupted  by  the  landlord's  daughter  who  points 
to  heaven  and  says : 

..."  Ye  may  no  more  contend,  — 
There  lies  the  happiest  land  !  " 

In  January,  1840,  the  poet  wrote  to  his  friend  George  Greene : 

I  have  broken  ground  in  a  new  field  ;  namely,  ballads ;  beginning 
with  the  "  Wreck  of  the  Schooner  Hesperus  "  on  the  reef  of  Norman's 
Woe.  ...  I  think  I  shall  write  more.  The  national  ballad  is  a  virgin 
soil  here  in  New  England ;  and  there  are  great  materials.  Besides, 
I  have  a  great  notion  of  working  on  fait  peoples  feelings. 

In  1841,  consequently,  there  appeared  his  "  Ballads  and  Other 
Poems."  Longfellow  had  first  intended  calling  the  volume  "The 
Skeleton  in  Armor,"  but  the  collection  grew  in  number  until 
this  poem  was  overbalanced  by  the  weight  of  the  whole,  and 
until  —  which  is  more  significant  —  the  native  ballads  were 
crowded  by  the  introduction  of  poems  from  the  German  and 
Swedish  and  Danish.  The  change  of  plan,  though  slight,  was 
indicative  of  what  was  taking  place  in  Longfellow's  development. 
He  inclined,  in  the  fashion  of  his  day,  to  foster  American  sub 
ject  matter,  but  he  was  full  of  the  spirit  and  content  of  Euro-  \/ 
pean  literature  which  was  unknown  to  his  countrymen.  Some 
years  were  to  pass  before  he  could  hold  his  gaze  away  from 
"  outre-mer."  Another  letter  to  George  Greene  shows  how  he 
was  vacillating  at  this  time. 


272        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

A  national  literature  is  the  expression  of  national  character  and 
thought ;  and  as  our  character  and  modes  of  thought  do  not  differ 
essentially  from  those  of  England,  our  literature  cannot.  Vast  fields, 
lakes  and  prairies  cannot  make  great  poets.  They  are  but  the  scenery 
of  the  play,  and  have  much  less  to  do  with  the  poetic  character  than 
has  been  imagined.  ...  I  do  not  think  a  "Poets'  Convention"  would 
help  the  matter.  In  fact  the  matter  needs  no  helping. 

"Excelsior"  is  a  complete  poetic  fulfillment  of  this  idea. 
There  is  nothing  essentially  American  in  the  aspiration  of  youth. 
Longfellow  therefore  "staged"  the  ballad  in  the  Alps,  partly  be 
cause  the  Alps  doubtless  first  occurred  to  mind  and  partly  because 
in  America  no  mountain  heights  were  topped  by  the  symbolic 
monastery  from  which  the  traveler  could  be  found  still  aspiring  in 
death.  Again,  lyrics  like  "The  Day  is  Done,"  "The  Old  Clock 
on  the  Stairs,"  and  "  The  Arrow  and  the  Song"  belong  to  no  time 
or  place  but  are  meditative  moments  in  the  life  of  any  thoughtful 
man.  And  finally,  "  The  Bridge  "  is  a  representative  combina 
tion  of  native  and  foreign  material.  The  bridge  with  wooden 
piers  used  to  stand  exactly  as  described  over  the  Charles  River 
between  Boston  and  Cambridge.  It  was  so  near  the  ocean  that 
the  tides  swept  back  and  forth  under  it  as  they  do  not  under  any 
bridge  in  London  or  Paris  or  on  the  German  Rhine.  Yet  in  the 
second  stanza  the  likeness  of  the  moonlight  to  "a  golden  goblet 
falling  and  sinking  into  the  sea  "  is  evidently  an  allusion  to  a 
picture  in  Schiller's  "  Kb'nig  von  Thule,"  a  literary  allusion  but 
not  a  false  one,  for  the  moonlight  might  well  look  the  same 
on  the  tide-tossed  Charles  as  on  the  streaming  Rhine.  In  his 
"  Seaweed  "  Longfellow  seems  to  have  been  half  explaining 
and  half  defending  such  poetic  processes : 

So  when  storms  of  wild  emotion 

Strike  the  ocean 
Of  the  poet's  soul,  erelong 
From  each  cave  and  rocky  fastness, 

In  its  vastness, 
Floats  some  fragment  of  a  song. 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  273 

The  one  point  to  accept  with  caution  from  all  Longfellow's 
poems  of  self -analysis  is  the  oft-recurring  reference  to  heroic 
strife.  Whatever  heroism  he  felt  or  displayed  "in  the  world's 
broad  field  of  battle  "  was  more  quietly  enduring  than  spectac 
ular.  The  real  Longfellow  learned  "  to  labor  and  to  wait "  ;  if 
wild  emotion  ever  struck  the  ocean  of  his  soul  he  possessed 
himself  for  the  tumult  to  subside.  The  finest  of  all  his  lyrics, 
"  Victor  and  Vanquished,"  cannot  be  confirmed  from  the  visible 
evidences  of  his  career.  The  "Poems  on  Slavery,"  for  example, 
attest  only  to  the  passive  courage  of  his  convictions.  In  1842 
it  was  no  small  matter  to  come  out  clearly  in  public  opposition 
to  human  bondage  (see  p.  257).  Longfellow  did  not  hesitate  to 
risk  his  growing  popularity  by  issuing  this  little  volume.  He  was, 
and  he  continued  to  be,  the  devoted  friend  of  Charles  Sumner. 
Yet  his  antislavery  heroism  began  and  ended  with  these  seven 
poems,  and  their  value  lay  more  in  the  bare  fact  that  he  had 
written  them  than  in  any  ethical  or  emotional  appeal. 

The  period  from  1847  to  1863  was,  all  things  considered, 
quite  the  most  fruitful  for  Longfellow ;  and  this  contained  no 
five  titles  to  rival  "  Evangel  ine "  (1847),  "The  Song  of 
Hiawatha  "  (1855),  "  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish  "  (1858), 
"  The  New  England  Tragedy"  (first  form,  1860),  and  "Tales 
of  a  Wayside  Inn"  (1863).  Thus,  although  he  by  no  means 
abandoned  Europe  and  the  thoughts  of  Europe,  he  came  at 
last  and  altogether  naturally  to  the  development  of  American 
tradition  and  the  American  scene.  The  immediate  success  of 
"  Evangeline"  (for  five  thousand  copies  were  sold  within  two 
months)  is  easy  to  understand.  The  material  was  fresh  and 
the  story  was  lovely.  Longfellow's  reading-public,  accustomed 
to  certain  charms  and  qualities  in  his  work,  found  these  no 
less  attractively  displayed  in  the  long  story  than  in  his  brief 
lyrics.  The  pastoral  scene  at  the  start,  the  dramatic  episode 
of  the  separation,  the  long  vista  of  American  scenes  presented 
in  Evangeline's  vain  search,  and  the  final  rounding  out  of  the 
story  plot,. all  belong  to  a  "  good  seller"  ;  and  as  it  happened 


274        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

there  was  in  America  in  1847  no  widely  popular  novelist. 
The  field  belonged  to  the  author  of  "  Evangeline  "  even  more 
completely  then  a  half  century  earlier  it  had  belonged  to  the 
author  of  "  Marmion,"  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea. 

In  the  journal  of  1849  appears  the  entry,  "And  now  I  hope 
to  try  a  loftier  strain,  the  sublimer  Song  whose  broken  melodies 
have  for  so  many  years  breathed  through  my  soul  in  the  better 
hours  of  life."  This  was  a  reference  to  "  The  Golden  Legend," 
which  appeared  in  1851,  and  which  was  in  the  end  to  become 
part  of  "  Christus,"  completed  not  until  1872.  In  a  sense 
this  was  the  most  ambitious  and  least  effective  of  all  his 
undertakings.  It  was  too  scholastic  for  the  public ;  it  was  not 
a  fit  avenue  to  the  feelings  of  " 'the  people"  whom  in  1840  he 
had  resolved  to  stir.  By  1854  Longfellow  entered  in  the  jour 
nal,  "  I  have  at  length  hit  upon  a  plan  for  a  poem  on  the  Amer 
ican  Indians,  which  seems  to  me  the  right  one  and  the  only." 
This  was  to  do  with  the  traditions  of  the  red  man  what  Malory 
had  done  with  the  Arthurian  story  and  what  Tennyson  was 
soon  to  be  reweaving  into  the  "  Idylls  of  the  King."  School- 
craft's  Indian  researches  put  the  material  into  his  hands,  and 
the  Finnish  epic  "  Kalevala  "  supplied  the  suggestion  for  the 
appropriate  measure.  It  appeared  in  1855  and  was  demanded 
by  the  public  in  repeated  printings. 

"Hiawatha"  has  a  double  assurance  of  wide  and  lasting 
fame  in  the  fact  that  it  appeals  to  young  and  old  in  different 
ways.  It  appeals  to  children  because  it  is  made  up  of  a  suc 
cession  of  picturesque  stories  of  action.  Their  lack  of  plots 
is  no  defect  to  the  youthful  reader  —  nothing  could  be  more 
plotless  then  the  various  parts  of  "  Gulliver's  Travels" — and 
on  the  other  hand  few  children  detect  or  care  for  the  scheme 
underlying  them  as  a  whole.  They  are  as  vivid  and  circum 
stantial  as  "  Gulliver  "  or  as  "  Pilgrim's  Progress."  Further 
more  they  deal  with  human  types  which  belong  to  all  roman 
tic  legend :  Hiawatha,  the  hero ;  Minnehaha,  the  heroine ; 
Chibiabos,  the  sweet  singer,  or  artist ;  Kwasind,  the  strong  man, 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  275 

or  primitive  force ;  Pau-Puk-Keewis,  the  mischief-maker,  or 
the  comic  spirit,  —  any  child  will  recognize  them  for  example 
in  Robin  Hood,  Maid  Marian,  Allan-a-Dale,  Will  Scarlet,  and 
Friar  Tuck.  Again,  these  human  types  are  extended  over  into 
the  animal  world  and  even  to  the  forces  of  nature,  the  latter, 
by  the  way,  supplying  frequently  the  place  of  the  indispen 
sable  villain  or  obstacle  between  the  hero  and  the  achievement 
of  his  purposes. 

Unhappily  the  average  adult  who  has  read  it  in  early  life 
assumes  that  he  has  advanced  teyond  "  Hiawatha,"  that  he 
can  put  it  away  with  other  childish  things,  not  realizing  how 
much  more  than  meets  the  eye  resides  within  its  lines.  More 
over,  some  grown-ups  who  do  attempt  a  second  reading  are 
dissatisfied  because  their  minds  have  stopped  between  childhood 
and  maturity,  stunted  by  too  heavy  a  diet  on  obvious  fiction 
and  the  daily  newspapers.  For  the  later  reading  of  "  Hiawatha  " 
demands  the  kind  of  intellectual  maturity  that  can  cope  with 
"  Paradise  Lost  "  or  "  Sartor  Resartus  "  or  "  In  Memoriam  " 
or  the  classics  which  are  quite  beyond  the  child.  The  genuinely 
mature  reader  appreciates  that  the  legends  and  the  ballads  of 
a  people  are  never  limited  to  external  significance  and  that, 
whoever  may  happen  to  be  the  hero,  it  is  the  people  who  are 
represented  through  him.  So  the  epic  note  emerges  for  him 
who  can  hear  it.  A  peace  is  declared  among  the  warring 
tribes ;  Hiawatha  is  sent  by  Mudjekeewis  back  to  live  and  toil 
among  his  people ;  he  is  commended  by  Mondamin  because 
he  prays  "  For  advantage  of  the  nations " ;  he  fights  the 
pestilence  to  save  the  people ;  he  divides  his  trophies  of  battle 
with  them ;  and  he  departs  when  the  advent  of  the  white  man 
marks  the  doom  of  the  Indian.  And  so  the  ordering  of  the 
parts  is  ethnic,  tracing  the  Indian  chronicle  through  the  stages 
that  all  peoples  have  traversed,  from  the  nomad  life  of  hunting 
and  fishing  to  primitive  agriculture  and  community  life ;  thus 
come  song  and  festival,  a  common  religion  and  a  common 
fund  of  legend,  and  finally,  in  the  tragic  life  of  this  people, 


276        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

come  the  decline  of  strength,  in  the  death  of  Kwasind,  the 
passing  of  song  with  Chibiabos,  and  the  departure  of  national 
heroism  as  Hiawatha  is  lost  to  view, 

In  the  glory  of  the  sunset, 

In  the  purple  mists  of  evening. 

It  is  no  mean  achievement  to  write  a  children's  classic,  but 
the  enduring  fact  about  "  Hiawatha  "  is  that  it  is  a  genuine 
epic  as  well. 

No  other  poem  of  Longfellow's  is  so  well  adjusted  in  form 
and  content.  The  fact  of  first  importance  is  not  that  Long 
fellow  derived  the  measure  from  a  Finnish  epic  but  that  the 
primitive  epic  form  is  perfect  because  it  is  the  natural,  unstudied 
way  of  telling  a  primitive  story.  The  forms  of  literature  that 
go  back  nearest  to  the  people  in  their  origins  are  simple  in 
rhythm  and  built  up  of  parallel  repetitions.  This  marks  a 
distinction  between  the  epics  about  nations  written  in  a  later 
age,  such  as  the  Iliad  and  the  ^Eneid  and  the  works 
of  Milton,  and  the  epics  of  early  and  unknown  authorship, 
such  as  the  "  Nibelungenlied  "  and  "  Beowulf."  It  was  Long 
fellow's  gift  to  combine  the  old  material  with  a  fittingly  primitive 
measure,  joining  as  only  poet  and  scholar  could 

.     .     .     legends  and  traditions 
With  the  odors  of  the  forest, 
With  the  dew  and  damp  of  meadows, 
With  the  curling  smoke  of  wigwams, 
With  the  rushing  of  great  rivers, 
With  their  frequent  repetitions, 
And  their  wild  reverberations, 
As  of  thunder  in  the  mountains. 

With  "  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish "  Longfellow 
returned  to  New  England  and  told  his  first  long  story  of 
his  own  district  and  of  his  own  immediate  people.  Both 
"  Evangeline  "  and  "  Hiawatha  "  were  narratives  that  ended 
with  themselves.  The  glory  of  the  Acadians  and  of  the  Indians 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  277 

was  departed.  But  "  Miles  Standish  "  was  like  the  "  New 
England  Tragedies  "  in  dealing  with  a  people  who  were  very 
much  alive.  For  the  early  Puritan,  Longfellow  felt  a  thorough 
and  abiding  respect  which  was  not  untinged  with  humor.  For 
his  self-righteousness,  his  stridency,  and  his  arid  lack  of  feeling 
for  beauty  the  poet  showed  an  amused  contempt,  but  for  the 
essential  qualities  of  rectitude  and  abiding  persistence  he  was 
quite  ready  to  acknowledge  his  admiration.  There  is  a  pleasant 
personal  application  in  this  story  which  he  who  runs  is  likely 
to  overlook.  Miles  Standish  was  a  worthy  man,  says  Longfellow  ; 
he  was  stalwart,  vigorous,  practical,  and  when  put  to  the  test 
he  was  magnanimous,  too.  But  he  was  sadly  one-sided.  It 
was  not  enough  to  be  like  his  own  howitzer, 

Steady,  straightforward,  and  strong,  with  irresistible  logic, 
Orthodox,  flashing  conviction  right  into  the  hearts  of  the  heathen. 

He  was  of  the  sort  who  banished  the  birds  of  Killingworth 
with  costly  consequence.  The  worthier  character  was  John 
Alden  — "  my  ancestor"  —  who  was  like  the  Preceptor  of 
Killingworth  in  his  feeling  for  beauty  in  nature  and  in  poetry 
and  in  song.  "  Miles  Standish  "  is  his  most  amiable  picture 
of  the  Puritans.  In  "The  New  England  Tragedies"  Governor 
Endicott's  death  is  a  poetic  and  divine  retribution  for  his 
persecution  of  the  Quakers,  and  Giles  Corey's  sacrifice  to  the 
witchcraft  mania  is  a  horrid  indictment  of  bigotry  unbridled. 

From  1863  on  Longfellow  continued  in  the  various  paths 
which  he  had  already  marked  out,  but  his  work  in  the  main 
was  in  sustained  narrative  and  in  translation.  His  rendering 
of  Dante  is  the  preeminent  piece  of  American  translation,  at 
once  more  poetic  and  more  scholarly  than  Bryant's  "  Iliad " 
or  Bayard  Taylor's  "  Faust."  It  was  a  labor  of  love,  extending 
over  many  years,  the  fruit  of  his  teaching  as  well  as  of  his 
study,  and  in  its  final  form  the  product  of  nightly  counsels 
with  his  learned  neighbors,  Charles  Eliot  Norton  and  James 
Russell  Lowell.  Age,  fame,  and  the  affectionate  respect  of  the 


278        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

choicest  friends  saw  him  broaden  and  deepen  in  his  philosophy 
of  life.  Little  psalms  and  ballads  no  longer  expressed  him. 
Life  had  become  a  great  outreaching  drama  at  which  he  hinted 
in  his  cyclic  "  Christus :  a  Mystery."  His  last  lyrics  opened 
vistas  instead  of  supplying  formulas,  and  quite  appropriately 
he  left  behind  as  an  uncompleted  fragment  his  dramatic  poem 
on  the  greatest  of  dreamers  and  workers,  Michael  Angelo. 

There  is  no  possibility  of  debate  as  to  Longfellow's  immense 
popularity.  The  evidence  of  the  number  of  editions  in  English 
and  in  translation,  the  number  of  works  in  criticism,  the 
number  of  titles  in  the  British  Museum  catalogue,  the  number 
of  poems  included  in  scores  of  "  Household  "  and  "  Fireside  " 
collections,  and  the  confidence  with  which  booksellers  stock  up 
in  anticipation  of  continued  sales,1  tells  the  story.  But  these 
facts  in  themselves  do  not  establish  Longfellow's  claim  to 
immortality,  for  there  is  no  necessary  connection  between  such 
popularity  and  greatness.  There  was  little  evidence  in  him  of 
the  genius  which  takes  no  thought  for  the  things  of  the  morrow. 
Until  after  the  height  of  his  career  he  never  wrote  in  disregard 
of  the  public.  "  The  fact  is,"  he  sent  word  to  his  father, 
when  he  was  but  seventeen,  "I  most  eagerly  aspire  after  future 
eminence  in  literature."  And  even  earlier  he  had  laid  down 
his  program  when  he  wrote,  "  I  am  much  better  pleased  with 
those  pieces  which  touch  the  feelings  and  improve  the  heart, 
than  with  those  which  excite  the  imagination  only."  He  had 
the  good  sense  and  the  honesty  not  to  pretend  to  inspiration. 
On  the  contrary  he  was  continually  projecting  poems  and 
continually  sitting  down,  not  to  write  what  he  had  thought 
but  to  think  what  he  should  write.  He  was  an  omnivorous 
but  acquiescent  reader,  and  what  his  reading  yielded  him  was 
literary  stuff  rather  than  vital  ideas.  He  accepted  and  reflected 
the  ways  of  his  own  time  and  did  not  modify  them  in  any 
slightest  degree.  He  was  never  iconoclastic,  rarely  even  fresh. 

1  See  pages  2-7  in  T.  W.  Higginson's  "  Longfellow,"  American  Men  of 
Letters  Series. 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  279 

He  had  something  of  Pope's  gift  for  well-rounded  utterances 
on  life,  something  of  Scott's  ability  to  tell  a  good  story  well, 
and  withal  his  own  benevolent  serenity. 

This  was  not  a  supreme  endowment,  but  it  was  a  very 
large  one,  and  he  developed  it  to  a  lofty  degree.  There  will 
always  be  a  case  for  Longfellow  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
value  the  inspirer  of  the  many  above  the  inspirer  of  the  wise. 
There  are  ten  who  read  Longfellow  to  every  one  who  reads 
Whitman  or  Emerson.  His  wholesomeness,  his  lucidity,  his 
comfortable  sanity,  his  very  lack  of  intense  emotion,  endear 
him  to  those  who  wish  to  be  entertained  with  a  story  or  soothed 
and  reassured  by  a  gentle  lyric.  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 
wrote  finely  of  him :  "His  song  was  a  household  service,  the 
ritual  of  our  feastings  and  mournings ;  and  often  it  rehearsed 
for  us  the  tales  of  many  lands,  or,  best  of  all,  the  legends  of 
our  own.  I  see  him,  a  silver-haired  minstrel,  touching  melodi 
ous  keys,  playing  and  singing  in  the  twilight,  within  sound  of 
the  rote  of  the  sea.  There  he  lingers  late ;  the  curfew  bell  has 
tolled  and  the  darkness  closes  round,  till  at  last  that  tender 
voice  is  silent,  and  he  softly  moves  unto  his  rest." 


BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW.  Works.  Riverside  Edition.  1886. 
ii  vols.  Poetry,  Vols.  I-VI,  IX-XI.  Prose,  Vols.  VII,  VIII. 
Standard  Library  Edition.  14  vols.  (Includes  content  of  Riverside 
Edition  plus  the  life  by  Samuel  Longfellow.)  The  best  single 
volume  is  the  Cambridge  Edition.  His  work  appeared  in  book  form 
originally  as  follows :  Miscellaneous  Poems  from  the  United  States 
Literary  Gazette  (with  others),  1826;  Coplas  de  Manrique,  1833; 
Outre-Mer,  Vol.  I,  1833,  Vol.  II,  1834;  Hyperion,  1839;  Voices  of 
the  Night,  1839;  Ballads  and  Other  Poems,  1842;  Poems  on 
Slavery,  1842;  The  Spanish  Student,  1843;  Poems,  1845;  The 
Belfry  of  Bruges  and  Other  Poems,  1846;  Evangeline,  1847; 
Kavanagh,  1849;  The  Seaside  and  the  Fireside,  1850;  The  Golden 
Legend,  1851;  Hiawatha,  1855;  Prose  Works,  1857;  The  Court 
ship  of  Miles  Standish,  1858;  The  New  England  Tragedy,  1860; 
Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,  1863;  Flower-de-Luce,  1867;  Dante's 


280        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Divina  Commedia  (translated),  1 867 ;  The  New  England  Tragedies, 
1868;   The  Divine  Tragedy,  1871;   Three  Books  of  Song,  1872; 
Aftermath,  1873;  The  Masque  of  Pandora,  1875;  Keramos,  1878; 
Ultima  Thule,  1880;  In  the  Harbor,  1882;  Michael  Angelo,  1883. 
Bibliography 

A  bibliography  of  first  editions  compiled  by  Luther  S.  Livingston. 

Privately  printed  1908.    See  also  Cambridge  History  of  American 

Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  425-436. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  Samuel  Longfellow.  3  vols.  These  first  ap 
peared  as  The  Life,  1886  (2  vols),  and  Final  Memorials,  1887  (i  vol). 

AUSTIN,  G.  L.  Longfellow:  his  Life,  his  Works,  his  Friendships.  1883. 

CARPENTER,  G.  R.    Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.   1901. 

DAVIDSON,  THOMAS.    H.  W.  Longfellow.   1882. 

FIELDS,  MRS.  ANNIE.    Authors  and  Friends.   1896. 

GANNETT,  W.C.  Studies  in  Longfellow,  etc.  1898.  (Riv.Lit.Ser.,No.i2.} 

HENLEY,  W.  E.  Views  and  Reviews.    1890. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.   1902. 

HOWELLS,  W.  D.    My  Literary  Friends  and  Acquaintances.    1900. 

HOWELLS,  W.  D.  The  Art  of  Longfellow.  North  American  Review, 
March,  1907. 

KENNEDY,  W.  S.    Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.   1882. 

LAWTON,  W.  C.   A  Study  of  the  New  England  Poets.   1898. 

LOWELL,  J.  R.  A  Fable  for  Critics,  passim.   1848. 

NORTON,  C.  E.    H.  W.  Longfellow :  a  Sketch.    1907. 

PERRY,  BLISS.  Park  Street  Papers,  The  Centenary  of  Longfellow. 
1908. 

POE,  E.  A.  In  Literati:  Mr.  Longfellow  and  Other  Plagiarists; 
Mr.  Longfellow,  Mr.  Willis,  and  the  Drama ;  Longfellow's  Ballads. 

RICHARDSON,  C.  F.    American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  chap.  iii. 

ROBERTSON,  E.  S.    Life  of  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.   1887. 

ROSSETTI,  W.  M.   Lives  of  Famous  Poets.   1878. 

STEDMAN,  E.  C.    Poets  of  America.   1885. 

TRENT,  W.  P.  Longfellow  and  Other  Essays.  1910.  Cambridge 
History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  chap.  xii. 

UNDERWOOD,  F.  H.  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow :  a  Biographical 
Sketch.  1882. 

WINTER,  WILLIAM.   Old  Friends.  1909. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  fifty  pages  at  random  from  "  Outre-Mer."  Compare  them 
in  tone  and  style  with  a  passage  of  equal  length  from  the  essays  on 
English  life  in  "  The  Sketch  Book  "  or  from  "  Innocents  Abroad  " 
or  from  Howells's  "  London  Films." 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  281 


Apply  the  tests  for  popular  fireside  poetry  referred  to  on  pages  263 
and  270  to  the  poems  of  Longfellow  which  you  regard  as  general 
favorites. 

Read  from  three  to  six  of  Longfellow's  ballads  and  compare  them 
with   a   similar   number  by  Tennyson  or  Dante4  Gabriel ;  Rossetti,, 
or  Whittier. 

What  was  there  in  Longfellow's  education  and  profession  to  lead 
him  to  the  contention  in  1840  that  there  was  no  difference  in  the 
characters  and  modes  of  thought  of  Englishmen  and  Americans  ? 

See  Whitcomb's  "  Chronological  Outlines  of  American  Literature  " 
for  the  years  1845  to  1850  for  the  absence  of  any  strikingly  popular 
fiction  in  the  period  when  "  Evangeline  "  was  published. 

Read  "  Hiawatha  "  for  the  broad  view  of  ethnic  life  which  natu 
rally  escapes  the  attention  of  the  child  reader.  Compare  in  general 
the  measures  of  "  Hiawatha  "  and  of  "  Beowulf  "  (in  the  original  or 
in  metrical  translation). 

Note  Longfellow's  characterizations  of  the  Puritans  in  the  poems 
mentioned  on  page  277  and  compare  these  with  Hawthorne's. 

Read  "The  Prelude,"  "  The  Day  is  Done,"  "Seaweed,"  and 
"  Birds  of  Passage "  for  Longfellow's  comments  on  the  poet  and 
the  poetic  art. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 

James  Russell  Lowell  (1819-1891)  was  born  in  Cambridge, 
the  youngest  of  six  children.  His  father,  the  Reverend  Charles 
Lowell,  a  Harvard  graduate,  was  pastor  of  the  West  Church  in 
Boston,  three  miles  away.  Elm  wood  was  an  ample  New  Eng 
land  mansion  with  the  literary  atmosphere  indoors  that  is  gen 
erated  by  the  presence  of  good  books  and  good  talk.  The  boy 
was  one  of  a  few  day  scholars  at  an  excellent  boarding  school 
in  town,  from  which  he  entered  college  in  the  class  of  1838. 
Like  many  another  man  of  later  distinction  in  letters,  he  was 
more  industrious  than  regular  as  a  student,  wasting  little  time 
in  fact,  but  often  neglecting  his  assigned  work  and  sometimes 
lapsing  into  mild  disorder  to  the  extent  of  falling  under  college 
discipline.  Toward  the  end  of  senior  year  he  was  actually 
"  rusticated  "  for  a  combination  of  petty  offenses.  Under  this 
form  of  punishment  the  boy,  who  was  for  a  time  suspended 
from  college,  was  assigned  to  a  clergyman  in  some  country 
town  and  required  to  keep  up  in  his  studies  until  his  rein 
statement.  It  happened  that  Lowell  was  sent  to  Concord,  and 
that  here  (while  in  charge  of  a  clergyman  with  the  ominous 
name  of  Barzillai  Frost)  he  was  fretting  over  the  class  poem, 
in  which  he  commented  with  youthful  cynicism  on  Carlyle, 
Emerson,  the  abolitionists,  and  the  champions  of  total  absti 
nence  and  of  woman's  rights.  It  was  an  outburst  on  which  he 
looked  back  with  quiet  amusement  in  later  years : 

Behold  the  baby  arrows  of  that  wit 

Wherewith  I  dared  assail  the  woundless  Truth ! 

Love  hath  refilled  the  quiver,  and  with  it 
The  man  shall  win  atonement  for  the  youth. 
282 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  283 

And  the  proof  that  the  boyish  gibes  were  hardly  more  than  a 
result  of  the  impatience  at  his  ungrateful  weeks  in  Concord  is 
contained  in  his  record  of  the  inspiration  which  he  owed  in 
student  days  to  Emerson  the  lecturer  (see  p.  211). 

In  the  first  years  out  of  college,  from  which  he  graduated 
in  1838,  he  passed  through  the  oft-trod  vale  of  troubled  inde 
cision  as  to  what  he  should  do  with  his  life.  He  rejected 
at  once  his  father's  profession  of  preaching  and  abandoned 
thoughts  of  the  law  after  he  had  earned  his  LL.B.  degree  in 
1840.  And  then,  following  a  brief  and  frustrated  romance, 
he  entered  upon  an  acquaintance  which  culminated  in  his  mar 
riage  to  Maria  White  and  resulted  in  his  becoming  a  soberer 
and  a  wiser  man.  She  was  already  deeply  interested  in  the 
social  movements  toward  which  his  mind  was  maturing.  His 
devotion  to  her  took  permanent  form  in  his  first  volumes  of 
poems,  "A  Year's  Life"  (1841)  and  "  Poems  "  (1843),  and 
her  influence  on  him  is  shown  in  his  zeal  for  the  very  reforms 
which  he  had  derided  in  his  class  poem  three  years  earlier. 
He  founded  a  new  magazine,  The  Pioneer,  which  lived  for 
three  months  in  1843  ;  he  contributed  copiously  to  The  Boston 
Miscellany,  Graham  s  Magazine,  and  Arcturus\  and,  what  was 
much  more  momentous,  he  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  aboli 
tionists  by  becoming  a  regular  contributor  to  The  Pennsylvania 
Freeman.  In  the  meanwhile,  also,  in  addition  to  his  purely 
poetic  work  and  to  his  reform  enthusiasm,  he  took  his  first 
step  toward  scholastic  achievement  with  his  "  Conversations  on 
Some  of  the  Old  Poets,"  which  appeared  in  a  volume  of  1844. 
From  now  to  the  end  of  his  life  Lowell  continued  to  distribute 
his  energies  among  the  fields  of  poetry,  civics,  and  scholarship. 

In  1845,  J846,  and  1847  he  wrote  abundantly,  widening 
his  relations  with  the  magazines  of  the  day  and  apparently 
finding  no  trouble  in  marketing  his  wares.  One  piece  of  verse 
is  preeminent  in  this  period  for  both  immediate  and  lasting 
appeal  —  "The  Present  Crisis."  It  was  Lowell's  way  of  pro 
testing  at  the  national  policy  in  the  war  with  Mexico  and,  in 


284        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

its  contrast  with  Thoreau's  method  (see  p.  224),  throws  light 
on  the  reformer's  later  strictures  upon  the  recluse.  It  was 
repeated  on  every  hand  during  the  next  twenty  years  and  was 
given  special  emphasis  through  its  frequent  use  by  such  orators 
as  Wendell  Phillips  and  Charles  Sumner.  It  was  in  1848, 
however,  that  he  came  to  the  fullness  of  his  powers,  contrib 
uting  some  forty  articles  to  four  Boston  periodicals  and  publish 
ing  four  books  "Poems  (Second  Series),"  "A  Fable  for  Critics," 
"The  Biglow  Papers,"  and  "The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal."  He 
was  only  ten  years  out  of  college,  and  at  that  was  only  twenty- 
nine  years  old,  but  he  showed  secure  taste,  confident  judgment, 
and  a  seasoned  ease  of  humor  which  belong  to  middle  life. 
In  the  first  and  last,  the  more  literary  volumes,  there  is  per 
haps  more  evidence  of  youth.  It  appears  in  the  effusive  grief 
on  the  loss  of  his  little  daughter,  and  in  "  Sir  Launfal "  Lowell 
seems  to  be  working  too  clearly  after  the  somewhat  confused 
formula  laid  down  in  the  introduction  to  The  Pioneer.  Americans 
were  to  attempt  a  natural  rather  than  a  national  literature.  They 
were  to  remember  that  "new  occasions  teach  new  duties."  "To 
be  the  exponent  of  a  young  spirit  which  shall  aim  at  power 
through  gentleness  . . .  and  in  which  freedom  shall  be  attempered 
to  love  by  a  reverence  for  all  beauty  wherever  it  may  exist,  is 
our  humble  hope."  So  in  order  not  to  be  too  aggressively 
national,  he  derived  a  theme  from  the  literature  of  chivalry 
and  adorned  it  with  a  democratic,  nineteenth-century  moral. 

"A  Fable  for  Critics"  is  less  consciously  ambitious  and 
more  mature.  Just  how  remarkable  a  piece  of  discrimination 
it  was  can  be  seen  from  a  comparison  of  the  writers  criticized 
in  it  with  those  in  Poe's  "  Literati "  of  two  years  earlier. 
Lowell's  subjects  are  familiar  to  the  modern  general  reader; 
he  omitted  no  man  of  permanent  reputation  and  included 
almost  ne  one  who  has  been  forgotten.  Poe's  selections,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  quaintly  unfamiliar  as  a  whole  to  all  but  the 
professed  student  of  literary  history.  His  judgments  on  them 
are  mostly  sound,  but  his  judgment  in  choosing  them  for 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  285 

treatment  is  open  to  one  of  two  criticisms :  either  that  he  could 
not  recognize  permanent  values  or  that,  for  personal  and  edi 
torial  reasons,  he  preferred  to  ignore  them.  In  the  "  Fable  " 
Lowell  for  the  first  time  put  to  public  use  his  ready  command 
of  impromptu  verse.  His  pen  was  a  little  erratic,  but  when  it 
would  work  at  all,  it  was  likely  to  work  with  happy  fluency. 
The  jaunty  treatment  of  his  contemporaries  was  quite  literally 
a  series  of  running  comments,  trotting  along  in  genial  anapaestic 
gait,  stumbling  sometimes  on  a  pun,  scampering  with  light  foot 
across  extended  metaphors,  and  taking  the  barriers  of  double 
and  triple  rime  without  a  sign  of  exertion.  In  point  of  method 
the  "  Fable  "  was  a  single  exercise  in  writing  the  journalistic 
verse  of  which  Lowell  proved  himself  master  in  the  two  series 
of  "Biglow  Papers"  (1846-1848  and  1862-1866).  It  was 
exactly  deserving  of  Holmes's  friendly  comment,  "  I  think  it 
is  capital  —  crammed  full  and  rammed  down  hard  —  powder 
(lots  of  it)  —  shot  —  slugs  —  very  little  wadding,  and  that  is 
guncotton  —  all  crowded  into  a  rusty-looking  sort  of  a  blunder 
buss  barrel,  as  it  were  —  capped  with  a  percussion  preface  — 
and  cocked  with  a  title-page  as  apropos  as  a  wink  to  a  joke." 
Different  as  it  is  from  "  The  Literati"  in  scale,  tone,  individual 
subjects,  and  method  of  circulation,  the  two  deserve  mention 
together  as  antidotes  both  to  Anglomania  and  to  wholesale 
praise  of  everything  American. 

With  "  The  Biglow  Papers  "  Lowell  returned  to  the  attack 
which  he  had  begun  in  "The  Present  Crisis."  He  wrote  in  1860 : 

I  believed  our  war  with  Mexico  (though  we  had  as  just  ground  for 
it  as  a  strong  nation  ever  has  against  a  weak  one)  to  be  essentially  a 
war  of  false  pretences,  and  that  it  would  result  in  widening  the  bound 
aries  and  so  prolonging  the  life  of  slavery.  .  .  .  Against  these  and  many 
other  things  I  thought  all  honest  men  should  protest.  I  was  born  and 
bred  in  the  country,  and  the  dialect  was  homely  to  me.  I  tried  my  first 
"  Biglow  Paper  "  and  found  that  it  had  a  great  run.  So  I  wrote  the 
others  from  time  to  time  in  the  year  which  followed,  always  very  rapidly, 
and  sometimes  (as  with  "What  Mr,  Robinson  Thinks")  at  one  sitting. 


286        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

He  wrote  the  nine  numbers  of  the  series  not  only  in  the 
dialect  of  the  countryside  but  from  the  viewpoint  of  a  forth 
right,  hard-headed,  Puritan-tinged  Yankee;  and  he  put  them 
out  as  the  compositions  of  Hosea  Biglow  under  the  encourage 
ment  of  Parson  Wilbur,  without  the  use  of  his  own  name.  He 
was  surprised  by  the  cordial  reception  of  the  volume,  fifteen 
hundred  copies  of  which  were  sold  in  the  first  week.  If  he  had 
put  on  the  cap  and  bells  to  play  fool  to  the  public,  he  said,  it 
was  less  to  make  the  people  laugh  than  to  win  a  hearing 
for  certain  serious  things  which  he  had  deeply  at  heart.  "  The 
Biglow  Papers  "  were  undoubtedly  Lowell's  great  popular  suc 
cess.  They  carried  the  fight  into  the  enemies'  camp  in  the 
abolition  struggle,  they  were  resumed  with  new  success  with 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  and  they  widened  the  reading 
public  for  his  more  sober  political  prose  and  for  his  more 
elevated  verse. 

However,  Lowell  was  not  satisfied  to  be  only  a  fighter. 
In  a  letter  of  January,  1850,  he  wrote  to  a  friend: 

My  poems  hitherto  have  been  a  true  record  of  my  life,  and  I  mean 
that  they  shall  continue  to  be.  ...  I  begin  to  feel  that  I  must  enter 
on  a  new  year  of  my  apprenticeship.  My  poems  thus  far  have  had  a 
regular  and  natural  sequence.  First,  Love  and  the  mere  happiness 
of  existence  beginning  to  be  conscious  of  itself,  then  Freedom  —  both 
being  the  sides  which  Beauty  presented  to  me  —  and  now  I  am  going 
to  try  more  wholly  after  Beauty  herself. ...  I  have  preached  sermons 
enow,  and  now  I  am  going  to  come  down  out  of  the  pulpit  and  go  about 
among  my  parish.  ...  I  find  that  Reform  cannot  take  up  the  whole 
of  me,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  eyes  were  given  us  to  look  about  us 
with  sometimes,  and  not  to  be  always  looking  forward. ...  I  am  tired 
of  controversy. 

Out  of  such  a  mood  as  this  came  the  natural  decision  to 
make  his  first  and  long-deferred  trip  to  Europe,  a  sojourn  of 
fifteen  months  in  1851-1852  with  his  wife  and  children.  His 
wide  reading  of  foreign  literatures  gave  the  keys  to  an  under 
standing  of  the  peoples  among  whom  he  traveled,  and  especially 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  287 

to  an  understanding  of  Roman  culture.  His  comments  from 
Rome  furnish  an  interesting  contrast  with  Emerson's  ("Written 
at  Rome,"  1833).  The  reaction  of  the  Concord  philosopher 
had  been  wholly  personal.  Lowell's  was  wholly  national. 

Surely  the  American  (and  I  feel  myself  more  intensely  American 
every  day)  is  last  of  all  at  home  among  ruins  —  but  he  is  at  home  in 
Rome.  . .  .  Our  art,  our  literature,  are,  as  theirs,  in  some  sort  exotics ; 
but  our  genius  for  politics,  for  law,  and,  above  all,  for  colonization,  our 
instinct  for  aggrandizement  and  for  trade,  are  all  Roman.  I  believe 
we  are  laying  the  basis  of  a  more  enduring  power  and  prosperity,  and 
that  we  shall  not  pass  away  until  we  have  stamped  ourselves  upon  the 
whole  western  hemisphere. 

On  his  return  to  America  he  plunged  eagerly  into  writing, 
but  the  springs  of  utterance  were  soon  sealed  by  the  death  of 
his  wife.  Following  on  the  losses  of  his  mother  and  two  of  his 
children  this  was  the  fourth  and  most  crushing  bereavement 
within  a  very  few  years.  His  recovery  of  working  powers  was 
aided  by  the  distraction  that  came  from  an  invitation  to  deliver 
the  distinguished  Lowell  Lecture  Series  in  Boston  in  the  winter 
of  1854-1855.  These  were  to  be  twelve  in  number,  on  poetry 
in  general  and  English  poetry  in  particular.  The  task  appealed 
to  him  as  combining  the  beauty  and  truth  to  which  he  inclined 
to  turn  after  his  years  of  conflict.  He  threw  himself  whole 
heartedly  into  the  preparation  and  delivery  of  the  lectures  and 
succeeded  admirably  with  his  hearers ;  but  the  greater  result 
was  an  indirect  one.  While  they  were  in  progress  Longfellow 
offered  his  resignation  of  the  Smith  Professorship  "of  the 
French  and  Spanish  Languages  and  Literatures  .  .  .  and  of 
Belles  Lettres  in  Harvard  College,"  a  post  he  had  filled  since 
1836.  Seven  candidates  of  no  mean  ability  presented  them 
selves  for  the  vacant  position,  but  the  appointment  was  offered 
to  Lowell,  who  had  not  applied  for  it,  in  preference  to  them 
all.  He  spent  another  year  abroad  before  undertaking  the 
work  in  the  autumn  of  1856,  and  held  the  position  actively 
until  1877  and  as  emeritus  professor  until  his  death  in  1891. 


288        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

In  this  work  he  was  a  scholar  and  a  critic  rather  than  a  teacher. 
He  gave  almost  no  elementary  instruction  in  the  languages, 
and  his  methods  with  his  classes  were  casual  to  the  neglect  of 
the  usual  college  traditions.  What  he  did  for  his  students  was 
to  share  with  them  his  own  broad  experience  of  life  and  letters 
and  to  show  them  how  the  study  of  foreign  literatures  was  one 
with  the  study  of  history  and  philosophy. 

Lowell's  course  of  life,  however,  could  never  be  restricted 
to  any  single  channel.  If  he  had  found  in  1850  that  reform 
could  not  take  up  the  whole  of  him,  he  now  discovered  that 
scholarship  was  not  all-absorbing.  As  early  as  1853  the  ques 
tion  of  establishing  a  new  Boston  magazine  had  been  in  the 
air.  When  its  chief  promoter,  Francis  H.  Underwood,1  had 
made  certain  of  its  start,  Lowell  was  secured  as  first  editor 
and  carried  it  through  the  most  critical  period,  until  in  1861 
it  passed  into  the  publishing  hands  of  Ticknor  and  Fields 
and  under  the  editorship  of  the  junior  member  of  that  firm, 
James  T.  Fields.  In  the  editorial  office,  as  at  Cambridge, 
Lowell  was  relieved  from  the  heaviest  humdrum  labor  (espe 
cially  of  correspondence)  and  was  enabled  to  give  his  best 
energies  to  creative  planning,  yet  it  is  interesting  to  see  how 
effective  were  some  of  the  detail  criticisms  accepted  by  poets 
like  Emerson  and  Whittier  and  how  vigilant  he  was  in  his 
reading  of  manuscripts  and  proof  sheets.  Throughout  it  all  he 
kept  up  a  spring-flow  of  boyish  jollity,  no  different  in  spirit 
from  that  in  his  letters  of  college  days. 

An  unpremeditated  bit  in  one  of  his  letters  shows  how  the 
mind  of  professor  and  literary  editor  reverted  to  the  excitement 
of  politics  on  the  eve  of  the  war.  It  is  in  a  fragment  of  bur 
lesque  on  the  type  of  love  story  submitted  to  the  Atlantic-. 
"  Meanwhile  the  elder  of  the  two,  a  stern-featured  man  of 
some  forty  winters,  played  with  the  hilt  of  his  dagger,  half 
drawing  and  then  sheathing  again  the  Damascus  blade  thin  as 

1  See  Bliss  Perry's  "  Park  Street  Papers,"  "  The  Editor  who  Never  was 
Editor,"  pp.  205-277. 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  289 

the  eloquence  of  Everett  and  elastic  as  the  conscience  of  Cass" 
From  1858  to  1866  he  printed  some  sixteen  vigorous  and 
substantial  political  articles,  besides  many  shorter  notes  and 
reviews,  and  during  the  latter  four  years  resumed  the  "  Biglow 
Papers,"  repeating  and  building  upon  his  original  success. 
The  aggressive  fighting  spirit  which  he  carried  into  the  dis 
cussion  of  definite  men  and  measures  did  not  blind  him  to 
the  permanent  values  of  the  matters  in  dispute.  The  conse 
quence  was  that  his  political  writings  were  limited  to  the  Civil 
War  only  in  the  facts  he  cited,  and  that  they  apply  to  any 
war  in  the  principles  to  which  he  appealed.  There  is  no 
better  illustration  than  "  Mason  and  Slidell :  a  Yankee  Idyll." 
In  this  the  Concord  Bridge  and  Bunker  Hill  Monument  bring 
the  spirit  of  the  Revolution  to  the  discussion  of  a  Civil  War 
issue,  and  between  them  they  utter  almost  all  the  basic  con 
tentions  of  the  World  War  which  broke  out  fifty  years  later. 
They  anticipate  the  vital  things  that  have  recently  been  said 
for  and  against  military  preparedness,  international  jealousies, 
the  changes  made  necessary  in  international  law  by  the  progress 
of  invention,  the  appeals  to  national  hatred  and  to  a  tribal  or 
national  God,  the  viciousness  of  an  indeterminate  peace,  and 
the  essential  values  of  democracy. 

From  this  ordeal  by  battle  Lowell  seems  to  have  risen  into 
a  broader  and  nobler  serenity.  He  balanced  the  prose  essay 
on  "  The  Rebellion  :  its  Cause  and  Consequences  "  with  the 
Harvard  "  Commemoration  Ode "  ;  the  next  prose  volumes, 
"  Among  my  Books"  (1870  and  1876)  and  "  My  Study 
Windows"  (1871),  with  the  odes  on  "  Agassiz  "  (1874)  and 
"The  Concord  Centennial"  (1875)  and  the  "Three  Memorial 
Poems  "  of  1877.  In  all  the  poems  he  looked  to  the  past,  the 
struggle  being  over,  for  some  evidences  of  strength  and  beauty 
in  American  life  and  for  some  assurances  for  its  future;  and 
in  the  literary  essays  he  looked  beyond  nationalism  to  the 
permanent  and  universal  values  in  literature.  His  political 
writings  had  appeared  mainly  in  the  North  American  Review, 


2QO        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

which  he  had  edited  (1864-1872)  in  cooperation  with  Charles 
Eliot  Norton ;  and  at  this  point  younger  admirers  called  him 
into  public  appearances  as  presiding  officer,  as  committee 
chairman,  as  delegate  to  a  Republican  national  convention, 
and  as  presidential  elector.  It  even  took  some  insistence  to 
carry  through  his  refusal  to  run  for  Congress.  Finally,  in  1877 
he  entered  as  foreign  minister  on  eight  years  of  the  highest 
service  to  his  country,  the  first  two  and  a  half  at  Madrid  and 
the  remainder  at  London.  Few  men  in  America  could  have 
equaled  him  in  his  qualifications  for  the  Spanish  mission. 
He  had  taught  the  language  and  the  literature  and  was  espe 
cially  well-versed  in  the  drama,  and  temperamentally  there 
was  much  in  him  which  responded  to  the  national  character. 
He  wrote  to  Mr.  Putnam,  "  I  like  the  Spaniards  very  well  as 
far  as  I  know  them,  and  have  an  instinctive  sympathy  with 
their  want  of  aptitude  for  business  "  ;  and  to  Professor  Child, 
''There  is  something  oriental  in  my  own  nature  which  sym 
pathizes  with  this  '  let  her  slide  '  temper  of  the  hidalgos."  Both 
of  which  statements  should  be  taken  as  partly  true  to  the  letter 
and  partly  indicative  of  the  adjustability  which  distinguishes 
the  American  from  the  Englishman. 

The  most  compact  tribute  to  his  five  and  a  half  years  at 
the  court  of  St.  James  was  the  remark  of  a  Londoner  that 
he  found  all  the  Britons  strangers  and  left  them  all  cousins. 
Lowell  was  one  of  the  two  extreme  types  of  American  whom 
Victorian  England  chose  to  like  and  admire.  One,  of  the 
Mark  Twain  and  Joaquin  Miller  sort,  was  free  and  easy, 
smacking  of  the  wild  West,  completely  in  contrast  with  the 
English  gentleman ;  the  other,  in  the  persons  of  men  like 
Lowell  and  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  was  the  nearest  American 
approach  to  cultivated  John  Bull.  In  diplomatic  circles 
Lowell's  tact  always  mollified  his  firmness,  even  leading  to 
criticism  from  some  of  his  countrymen  because  he  never 
defied  nor  blustered.  And  in  his  immensely  important  appear 
ances  as  the  representative  of  the  United  States  at  all  manner 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  291 

of  social  occasions,  he  charmed  his  hosts  by  the  grace  and 
pertinence  of  his  public  speech. 

His  speech  was  the  happiest,  easiest,  most  graceful  conceivable, 
with  just  the  right  proportion  of  play  to  seriousness,  the  ideal  combi 
nation  of  ingredients  for  a  post-prandial  confection.  .  .  .  He  was 
pithy  without  baldness  and  full  without  prolixity.  He  never  said  too 
much,  nor  said  what  he  had  to  say  with  too  much  gravity.  His  man 
ner,  in  short,  was  perfection ;  but  the  real  substance  that  his  felicity 
of  presentation  clothed  counted  for  still  more.  .  .  .  And  in  England 
his  unexampled  popularity  was  very  largely  due  to  this  gift.1 

In  the  years  remaining  to  him  after  his  return  from  London 
in  1885  he  literally  uttered  much  of  the  best  that  he  wrote. 
He  was  no  longer  an  eager  producer,  but  he  could  be  stimu 
lated  to  speak  by  special  invitations.  So  he  delivered  addresses 
out  of  the  fullness  of  his  experience  at  Birmingham  University, 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  at  the  celebration  of  Forefathers'  Day 
in  Plymouth,  at  the  25Oth  Anniversary  of  the  founding  of 
Harvard,  before  the  reform  leagues  of  Boston  and  New 
York,  and  at  a  convention  of  the  Modern  Language  Asso 
ciation  of  America.  These,  with  his  last  volume  of  verse, 
"  Heartsease  and  Rue"  (1888),  became  his  valedictory.  He 
died  in  1891. 

The  outstanding  feature  of  Lowell's  career  is  that  he  was  a 
poet  in  action.  His  first  and  last  volumes  were  lyrics.  In  the 
forty-seven  years  between  their  issues  he  was  always  the  artist. 
He  brought  his  emotional  fervor  and  his  sense  of  phrase  to 
his  essays,  addresses,  and  occasional  poems  and  to  his  pursuit 
of  scholarship.  His  natural  first  interests  were  in  the  printed 
page  and  in  the  wielding  of  the  pen ;  measured  by  weeks  and 
months  his  life  was  largely  lived  in  retirement,  but  the  step 
from  reading  and  writing  to  active  citizenship  was  an  easy 
one,  and  in  the  world  of  action  he  seemed  to  make  few 
waste  motions.  What  he  did  not  only  counted  in  itself  but  it 

1 W.  C.  Brownell,  "  American  Prose  Masters,"  pp.  271,  272. 


292        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

enriched  his  mind  as  much  as  what  he  read.  And  back  of  all 
his  activity  were  certain  qualities  that  contributed  to  his  effec 
tiveness.  He  was  a  representative  man,  a  fact  acknowledged 
by  his  classmates  who  elected  him  their  poet.  He  had  the 
journalistic  gift  of  saying  excellently  what  others  were  on  the 
verge  of  thinking.  He  did  little  thinking  of  his  own  that  was 
original  but  much  that  was  independent,  and  as  a  sane  radical 
he  was  sure  of  the  hearing  he  richly  deserved.  He  was  clever 
and  charming,  with  a  glint  of  errant  unexpectedness,  which 
was  ingratiating  even  when  it  was  far-fetched  or  even  wan 
tonly  malapropos.  His  quips  are  like  the  gifts  and  favors  of 
old-time  children's  parties  —  hidden  all  over  the  house  and 
just  as  likely  to  defy  search  as  to  turn  up  under  a  napkin  or 
in  the  umbrella  of  a  departing  guest.  And  behind  all,  Lowell 
was  prevailingly  American,  with  the  combined  trust  in  democracy 
and  fear  for  it  that  belonged  to  his  group  in  his  generation. 
From  1820  on,  Irving,  Cooper,  Bryant,  and  their  followers 
had  protested  more  and  more  frequently  (see  pp.  111-114) 
at  the  certain  condescension  in  foreigners  to  which  Lowell 
addressed  himself  in  his  essay  of  1865.  Yet  all  these  men, 
and  cultured  America  as  a  whole,  played  up  to  this  conde 
scension  and  encouraged  it  by  evidently  expecting  it  —  stimu 
lating  it  by  the  peevish  feebleness  of  their  protests.  Lowell, 
though  loyal,  was  always  apologetic,  always  hoping  to  gain 
confidence  in  his  countrymen.  His  intimate  friend,  Charles 
Eliot  Norton,  was  deferent  toward  all  things  British  or  Euro 
pean,  and,  while  working  valiantly  to  establish  sound  canons 
of  taste,  felt  a  distress  for  the  crudities  of  American  life  that  was 
only  a  refinement  upon  the  snobbishness  of  the  Effinghams  in 
Cooper's  "  Homeward  Bound  "  and  "  Home  as  Found."  The 
fact  is  that  the  refined  American  of  the  mid-nineteenth  century 
was  afraid  to  contemplate  the  incarnation  of  America.  He 
knew  that  Uncle  Sam  was  too  mature  for  it ;  he  feared  that 
it  was  like  Tom  Sawyer ;  he  did  what  he  could  to  mold  it  into 
the  image  of  Little  Lord  Fauntleroy ;  and  he  apologized  for 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  293 

Whitman.  When  Mark  Twain  visited  William  Dean  Howells  in 
Cambridge  in  1871  they  were  both  young  sojourners  from  what 
was  to  Cambridge  an  undiscriminated  West.  Young  Mr.  Clemens 
did  not  care  at  all,  and  young  Mr.  Howells  did  not  care  as  far 
as  he  was  concerned,  though  he  cared  a  great  deal  in  behalf  of 
his  friend,  who  was  so  incorrigibly  Western.  And  in  record 
ing  his  anxiety  he  recorded  a  striking  fact  of  that  generation  : 
that  American  culture  was  afraid  even  of  the  rough-and-ready 
Americans  whom  Europe  was  applauding.  "  I  did  not  care," 
said  Mr.  Howells  of  Mr.  Clemens,  "  to  expose  him  to  the  criti 
cal  edge  of  that  Cambridge  acquaintance  which  might  not  have 
appreciated  him  at,  say,  his  transatlantic  value.  In  America 
his  popularity  was  as  instant  as  it  was  vast.  But  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  for  a  much  longer  time  here  than  in  Eng 
land  polite  learning  hesitated  his  praise.  ...  I  went  with  him 
to  see  Longfellow,  but  I  do  not  think  Longfellow  made  much 
of  him,  and  Lowell  made  less."  1 

In  habits  of  intellectual  nicety,  in  manners,  and  in  social 
inclination  Lowell  was  an  aristocrat ;  yet  in  spite  of  these 
tendencies,  and  quite  evidently  in  spite  of  them,  he  was  in 
principle  a  stanch  democrat,  and  when  put  to  the  test  that  sort 
of  democrat  is  the  most  reliable.  The  conflict  is  interestingly 
apparent  throughout  his  writings.  The  address  on  "  Democ 
racy  "  of  1888  need  not  be  gravely  cited  as  proof  of  Lowell's 
belief  in  government  by  the  people ;  it  is  only  the  final  iter 
ation  of  what  he  had  all  his  life  been  saying.  Yet  after  his 
usual  leisurely  introduction  he  approached  his  subject  with 
the  smile  of  half  apology  which  had  become  a  habit  to  him  : 
"  I  shall  address  myself  to  a  single  point  only  in  the  long  list 
of  offences  of  which  we  are  more  or  less  gravely  accused, 
because  that  really  includes  all  the  rest."  It  crops  out  in  the 
Thoreau  essay,  apropos  of  Emerson :  "  If  it  was  ever  ques 
tionable  whether  democracy  could  develop  a  gentleman,  the 
problem  has  been  affirmatively  solved  at  last "  ;  and  in  the 

1  W.  D.  Howells,  «  My  Mark  Twain,"  p.  46. 


294        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Lincoln  essay  :  "  Mr.  Lincoln  has  also  been  reproached  with 
Americanism  by  some  not  unfriendly  British  critics ;  but,  with 
all  deference,  we  cannot  say  that  we  like  him  any  the  worse 
for  it."  In  the  ode  on  Agassiz  he  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief 
that  the  great  naturalist  was  willing  to  put  up  with  New 
England  conditions ;  and  even  in  the  Harvard  "  Commemora 
tion  Ode  "  he  broke  out  suddenly  with  : 

Who  now  shall  sneer  ? 
Who  dare  again  to  say  we  trace 
Our  lines  to  a  plebeian  race  ? 

The  point  is  not  in  the  least  that  Lowell  did  not  believe  in 
democracy ;  every  deprecating  remark  of  this  sort  was  pref 
atory  to  a  fresh  defense  of  it.  The  point  is  that,  as  with  a 
quarrel,  it  takes  two  to  make  a  condescension  and  that  Lowell 
did  his  part.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  the  young  foreigner 
of  "  German-silver  aristocracy  "  condescending  with  success  to 
Lincoln  or  Emerson  or  to  Mark  Twain  or  Whitman. 

The  frequent  expression  of  this  self-defensive  mood  is  an 
illustration  of  another  leading  trait  in  Lowell — his  spontaneity. 
Since  he  felt  as  he  did  there  would  have  been  no  virtue  in 
concealing  the  fact,  and  Lowell  seldom  concealed  anything. 
He  wrote  readily  and  fully,  often  beyond  the  verge  of  prolixity. 
He  gave  his  ideas  free  rein  as  they  filed  or  crowded  or  raced 
into  his  mind,  not  only  welcoming  those  that  came  but  often 
seeming  to  invite  those  that  were  tentatively  approaching. 
Only  in  a  few  of  his  lyrics  did  he  compact  his  utterance. 
Most  of  the  introductions  to  essays  and  longer  poems  proceed 
in  the  manner  of  the  "  musing  organist "  of  the  first  stanza 
in  "  Sir  Launfal,"  "  beginning  doubtfully  and  far  away,"  and 
what  follows  is  in  most  cases  somewhat  lavishly  discursive. 
The  consequences  of  this  manner  of  expression  of  a  richly 
furnished  mind  are  not  altogether  fortunate.  Much  of  his 
writing  could  have  been  more  quickly  started  and  more  com 
pactly  stated,  and  practically  all  of  it  could  have  been  more 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  295 


firmly  constructed.  Emerson's  essays  lack  firm  structure 
because  they  were  not  written  to  a  program,  but  were  aggrega 
tions  of  paragraphs  already  set  down  in  his  journals.  Lowell's 
essays,  although  deliberately  composed,  were  equally  without 
design.  His  method  was  to  fill  himself  with  his  subject  of 
the  moment  and  then  to  write  eagerly  and  rapidly,  letting 
"  his  fingers  wander  as  they  list."  His  productions  were  con 
sequently  poured  out  rather  than  built  up.  They  have  the 
character  of  most  excellent  conversation  which  circles  about  a 
single  theme,  allows  frequent  digression,  admits  occasional  bril 
liant  sallies,  includes  various  "  good  things,"  and  finally  stops 
without  any  definitive  conclusion.  In  this  respect,  while  Lowell 
was  by  no  means  artless  in  the  sense  of  being  unsophisticated, 
he  was  also  by  no  means  artful  in  the  sense  of  calculating  his 
effects  upon  the  reader.  The  only  reader  of  whom  he  seems 
to  have  been  distinctly  conscious  was  the  bookish  circle  of 
his  own  associates.  He  would  fling  out  recondite  allusions  as 
though  in  challenge,  and  he  wrote  in  a  flowing,  polysyllabic 
diction  which  was  nicely  exact  but  which  rarely  would  con 
cede  the  simpler  word. 

This  same  surging  spontaneity  was  both  the  strength  and 
weakness  of  his  poetry.  He  inclined  too  much  to  foster  the 
theory  of  inspiration.  *  'T  is  only  while  we  are  forming  our 
opinions,"  he  once  wrote,  "that  we  are  very  anxious  to  prop 
agate  them "  ;  and  as  he  indited  most  of  his  poems  while 
he  was  in  this  state  of  "anxiety"  they  became  effusions 
rather  than  compositions.  His  first  drafts,  in  fact,  were  ful 
fillments  of  Bryant's  injunction  in  "The  Poet": 

While  the  warm  current  tingles  through  thy  veins 
Set  forth  the  burning  words  in  fluent  strains. 

But  in  his  revisions  he  was  unable  to  follow  the  instructions 
to  the  end  : 

Then  summon  back  the  original  glow,  and  mend 
The  strain  with  rapture  that  with  fire  was  penned. 


296        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

As  a  consequence  his  poems  when  published  were  as  inverte 
brate  as  when  he  first  wrote  them,  and  of  the  revisions  in  detail 
many  were  shifted  back  to  their  original  form.  The  degree  to 
which  he  tempered  the  wind  of  self-criticism  to  his  own  poetical 
lambs  is  the  more  noteworthy  on  account  of  the  acumen  with 
which  he  commented  as  editor  on  the  work  of  his  fellow-poets. 

On  the  other  hand,  his  easy  command  of  versification,  his 
gift  of  phrasing,  and  his  rich  poetic  imagination  resulted  in 
very  many  passages  of  beauty  and  feeling,  particularly  in  the 
later  odes  like  the  Commemoration  and  Agassiz  poems,  into 
which  he  poured  the  fine  fervor  of  his  patriotism.  In  these 
his  sincerity,  his  intellectual  solidity,  his  idealism,  and  his 
nature-feeling  combined  with  "the  incontrollable  poetic  impulse 
which  is  the  authentic  mark  of  a  new  poem "  and  which 
Emerson  ascribed  to  him  in  a  journal  entry  of  1868. 

BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL.  Works.  Riverside  Edition.  1890.  nvols. 
Elmwood  Edition.  1904.  16  vols.  (Contains  one  more  volume  of 
literary  essays,  one  more  of  poetry,  and  the  three  volumes  of  letters. 
C.  E.  Norton,  editor.  1904.)  These  appeared  in  book  form  originally 
as  follows:  Class  Poem,  1838;  A  Year's  Life,  1841  ;  Poems,  1844; 
Conversations  on  Some  of  the  Old  Poets,  1845;  Poems,  Second 
Series,  1848;  A  Fable  for  Critics,  1848;  The  Biglow  Papers,  1848; 
The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  1848;  Fireside  Travels,  1864;  The 
Biglow  Papers,  Second  Series,  1867;  Under  the  Willows  and  Other 
Poems,  1869;  The  Cathedral,  1870;  Among  my  Books,  1870;  My 
Study  Windows,  1871;  Among  my  Books,  Second  Series,  1876; 
Three  Memorial  Poems,  1877;  Democracy  and  Other  Addresses, 
1887;  Political  Essays,  1888;  Heartease  and  Rue,  1888;  Latest 
Literary  Essays  and  Addresses,  1891  ;  The  Old  English  Dramatists, 
1892;  Last  Poems,  1895;  Impressions  of  Spain,  1899. 

Bibliography 

A  volume   compiled   by  George  Willis   Cooke.     1906.     Cambridge 
History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  544-550. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  H.  E.  Scudder.   1901.    2  vols. 

BENTON,  JOEL.    Lowell's  Americanism.    Century,  November,  1891. 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  297 

BROWNELL,  W.  C.    American  Prose  Masters.   1909. 

CURTIS,  G.  W.    Orations  and  Addresses,  Vol.  III.   1894. 

GODKIN,  E.  L.    The  Reasons  why  Mr.  Lowell  should  be  Recalled. 

Nation,  June  i,  1882. 

GREENSLET,  FERRIS.    Lowell :  his  Life  and  Work.   1905. 
HALE,  E.  E.    Lowell  and  his  Friends.    1898. 
HALE,  E.  E.,  JR.    Lowell.   1899. 
HIGGINSON,  T.  W.   Book  and  Heart.   1897. 
HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Old  Cambridge.    1899. 
HOWELLS,  W.   D.     A    Personal    Retrospect    of   Lowell.    Scribner's, 

September,  1900. 

HOWELLS,  W.  D.    Literary  Friends  and  Acquaintances.    1900. 
JAMES,  HENRY.    Essays  in  London.   1893. 
MABIE,  H.  W.    My  Study  Fire.    Ser.  2.    1894. 
MEYNELL,  ALICE.    The  Rhythm  of  Life  and  Other  Essays.    1893. 
NORTON,  C.  E.   James  Russell  Lowell.    Harper's,  May,  1893. 
NORTON,  C.  E.    Letters  of  Lowell.    Harper's,  September,  1893. 
SCUDDER,  H.  E.  Mr.  Lowell  as  a  Teacher.   Scribner's,  November,  1891. 
STILLMAN,  W.  J.  The  Autobiography  of  a  Journalist,  chap.  xiv.    1901. 
STODDARD,  R.  H.    Recollections  Personal  and  Literary.    1903. 
TAYLOR,  BAYARD.    Critical  Essays.   1880. 
THORNDIKE,   A.    H.    Cambridge   History   of   American    Literature, 

Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  chap.  xxiv. 

UNDERWOOD,  F.  H.    Lowell;  a  Biographical  Sketch.   1882. 
UNDERWOOD,  F.  H.    The  Poet  and  the  Man.   1893. 
WENDELL,  BARRETT.    Stelligeri.   1893. 
WILKINSON,  W.  C.    A  Free  Lance  in  the  Field  of  Life  and  Letters. 

1874. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  "  The  Present  Crisis  "  as  determining  the  temper  in  which 
Lowell  wrote  his  essay  on  Thoreau  in  view  of  their  different  reactions 
to  the  same  national  situation. 

Read  what  Poe,  Longfellow,  and  Lowell  had  to  say  concerning 
overemphasis  on  the  American  quality  of  American  literature  as 
noted  on  pages  177,  272,  and  284.  Is  there  any  clear  reason  for 
this  common  dissent? 

Compare  the  people  discussed  in  Lowell's  "  Fable  for  Critics " 
and  in  Poe's  "  Literati,"  published  within  two  years  of  each  other. 

Read  the  connecting  prose  passages  between  the  "  Biglow  Papers  " 
for  interesting  evidence  of  Lowell's  attention  to  and  knowledge  of 
linguistic  detail. 


298        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Read  "  Mason  and  Slidell :  a  Yankee  Idyll  "  in  "  Biglow  Papers," 
Second  Series,  as  a  commentary  on  the  Great  European  War. 

Analyze  the  structure  of  a  selected  long  poem  and  of  a  literary 
essay  with  a  view  to  studying  its  firmness  or  looseness. 

Read  any  one  of  Lowell's  five  great  odes  and  note  the  rhetorical 
fitness  of  meter  and  subject  as  contrasted  with  the  artificiality  of 
Lanier's  later  poems. 

Read  "The  Shepherd  of  King  Admetus,"  "  Invita  Minerva," 
"  The  Origin  of  Didactic  Poetry,"  and  the  passages  on  Lowell  and 
his  fellow-poets  for  his  comments  on  poetry  and  poetic  art. 


CHAPTER  XX 
HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE 

The  name  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  (1811-1896)  is  in  all 
likelihood  not  so  well  known  as  the  title  of  her  most  famous 
work,  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  Millions  upon  millions  have  read 
her  story,  both  for  its  interest  and  because  of  its  place  in  Amer 
ican  history.  Yet  relatively  few  have  read  her  other  novels,  and 
to-day  those  who  turn  to  them  do  so  not  so  much  for  their 
own  sakes  as  because  they  contribute  a  minor  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  American  novel.  She  entered  literature  by  the 
pathway  of  reform.  "  The  heroic  element  was  strong  in  me, 
having  come  down  by  ordinary  generation  from  a  long  line  of 
Puritan  ancestry,  and  ...  it  made  me  long  to  do  something, 
I  knew  not  what :  to  fight  for  my  country,  or  to  make  some 
declaration  on  my  own  account."  Then,  when  the  story-telling 
gift  was  developed  and  the  reform  was  accomplished,  she  con 
tinued  to  hold  her  mirror  up  to  nature  —  a  kind  of  Claude 
Lorraine  glass  with  a  strong  tint  of  moralistic  blue  in  it. 

She  was  born  in  1 8 1 1  at  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  one  of  the 
five  children  of  the  Reverend  Lyman  Beecher  by  his  first 
marriage.  Her  famous  brother,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  was  two 
years  younger.  The  death  of  her  mother  when  she  was  but 
four  years  old  resulted  in  her  having  a  succession  of  homes  dur 
ing  girlhood  :  first  with  an  aunt,  then  for  some  years  under  her 
father's  roof  after  his  remarriage  in  1817,  and  next  from  1824 
to  1832  with  her  older  sister,  Catherine,  who  had  established  a 
school  in  Hartford.  In  all  these  experiences  she  lived  under 
kindly  protection  and  in  somewhat  literary  surroundings,  and 
in  all  of  them  she  breathed  an  atmosphere  which  was  heavy 
with  the  exhalations  of  the  old-school  Calvinistic  theology.  In 

299 


300        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

1832,  when  Harriet  was  twenty-one  years  old,  her  father,  after 
a  six-year  pastorate  of  a  Boston  church,  went  to  Cincinnati  as 
president  of  the  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  and  the  two  sisters 
joined  him  there. 

This  move  into  what  was  then  the  Far  West  was  not,  how 
ever,  a  banishment  into  the  wilds,  for  Cincinnati  was  in  those 
days  a  sort  of  outpost  of  Eastern  culture.  The  Ohio  River, 
which  flowed  by  its  doors,  served  as  the  great  highway  from 
the  East  to  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  city  attracted  early 
travelers  like  Mrs.  Trollope  and  Harriet  Martineau  as  visitors, 
and  stimulated  them  to  ungracious  comment,  which  was  offset 
by  longer  or  shorter  residence  of  a  distinguished  succession  of 
Massachusetts  men.  There  were  literary  clubs,  good  and 
prolific  publishing  houses,  and,  in  the  Western  Monthly,  the 
beginning  of  a  succession  of  magazines.  Catherine  wrote  back 
from  an  advance  trip  of  inspection  : 

I  have  become  somewhat  acquainted  with  those  ladies  we  shall  have 
most  to  do  with,  and  find  them  intelligent,  New  England  sort  of  folks. 
Indeed,  this  is  a  New  England  city  in  all  its  habits,  and  its  inhabitants 
are  more  than  half  from  New  England.  ...  I  know  of  no  place  in 
the  world  where  there  is  so  fair  a  prospect  of  finding  everything  that 
makes  social  and  domestic  life  pleasant. 

The  seminary,  a  new  institution,  and  Mr.  Beecher,  its  first 
president,  were  located  together  at  Walnut  Hills,  about  two 
miles  out  of  the  city ;  and  while  the  father  was  occupied  in  his 
pioneer  work  the  two  daughters  started  a  school  for  girls,  with 
the  double  promise  of  Catherine's  Hartford  experience  and  the 
type  of  people  among  whom  they  were  settling.  But  Harriet 
was  not  to  be  a  schoolmistress  for  long.  In  1833  she  was  the 
winner  of  a  fifty-dollar  prize  in  a  short-story  competition  con 
ducted  by  the  Western  Monthly,  and  in  1836  she  married  the 
Reverend  Calvin  E.  Stowe,  her  father's  colleague  in  Lane  Semi 
nary.  How  she  persisted  to  combine  authorship  and  maternity 
in  the  next  sixteen  years  is  a  marvel ;  none  the  less  so  because 


HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE  301 

since  the  days  of  Anne  Bradstreet  an  occasional  woman  has 
succeeded.  In  1842  her  husband  wrote  to  her  :  "  My  dear,  you 
must  be  a  literary  woman.  It  is  so  written  in  the  book  of  fate. 
Get  a  good  stock  of  health  and  brush  up  your  mind."  In  the 
next  year  her  first  volume,  a  book  of  selected  stories,  was  pub 
lished  by  Harpers;  but  by  1848  she  was  the  mother  of  six 
children,  the  oldest  only  eleven,  and  no  more  books  had 
appeared. 

Nevertheless  she  was  not  to  sink  under  the  tide  of  home 
drudgery.  She  had  visited  in  the  South,  witnessing  the  more 
kindly  aspects  of  slavery,  and  in  her  own  town  she  had  seen 
the  pursuit  of  fugitives,  the  conscientious  defiance  of  law  by 
devoted  abolitionists,  the  violence  of  proslavery  mobs,  and  had 
feared  for  the  life  of  her  brother,  who  was  reported  to  have 
suffered  death  with  his  friend  Lovejoy,  when  the  latter  was 
shot  in  Alton  by  a  band  of  Missourians.  In  these  exciting 
times  it  came  to  her  more  and  more  insistently  that  her  writ 
ing  must  be  turned  to  good  account.  Lane  Seminary  was  a 
seat  of  antislavery  doctrine  and  was  very  likely  saved  from 
destruction  by  its  fortunate  remoteness  from  the  town.  But 
"Uncle  Tom"  was  not  to  be  written  from  here.  In  1850, 
impelled  by  ill-health,  Professor  Stowe  accepted  a  call  to  Bow- 
doin  College,  in  which  he  had  been  a  student.  With  three 
children  she  preceded  him,  and  for  the  two  months  before  the 
birth  of  her  seventh  child,  in  Brunswick,  she  carried  the  entire 
responsibility  of  choosing,  equipping,  and  settling  in  their  new 
home.  In  the  meanwhile  the  family  bank  account  was  dis 
turbingly  low,  and  she  was  attempting  to  write.  And  in  the 
meanwhile,  too,  Webster's  "  Seventh  of  March  Speech  "  on  com 
promise  with  the  slavery  forces  had  stirred  the  North  as  nothing 
before  and  carried  the  country  one  step  nearer  to  the  Civil  War. 
In  the  winter  that  followed  Mrs.  Stowe  came  to  her  great  resolve 
to  write  something  that  would  arouse  the  whole  nation  ;  and  at  a 
communion  service  in  February  of  1851  there  appeared  to  her, 
as  in  a  vision,  the  scene  of  the  death  of  Uncle  Tom. 


302        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  story  began  its  appearance  in  the  National  Era,  June  5, 
1851,  and  was  announced  to  run  for  three  months,  but  as  it 
was  allowed  to  take  its  own  course  it  was  not  actually  con 
cluded  until  April  of  the  next  year.  Although  it  had  already 
attracted  the  widest  attention,  the  question  of  publication  in 
book  form  was  in  some  doubt  until  it  was  undertaken  by  an 
obscure  Boston  firm,  and  the  outcome  was  so  uncertain  that 
the  Stowes  did  not  dare  to  assume  half  the  risk  of  publication 
for  a  prospect  of  half  the  proceeds.  Three  thousand  copies 
were  sold  on  the  day  of  issue,  and  three  hundred  thousand  in 
America  within  the  first  year.  In  England,  also,  after  an  initial 
hesitation,  reprinting  was  soon  started,  and  by  the  close  of  the 
year  eighteen  different  houses  had  put  on  forty  editions,  and 
in  the  end  a  million  and  a  half  copies  were  circulated  in  Great 
Britain  and  the  colonies.1  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  fortune  was  made  " 
of  course  ;  but  of  quite  as  much  moment  to  her  was  the  fact 
that  her  influence  was  made  in  the  great  fight  in  which  she 
was  enlisted.  In  1853  she  sailed  for  what  turned  out  to  be  a 
sort  of  triumphal  tour  in  Great  Britain,  in  the  course  of  which 
large  sums  of  money  were  given  her  for  use  in  antislavery 
outlay.  Leading  men  and  women,  who  had  been  formerly  in 
different,  became  through  her  book  secondary  sources  of  influ 
ence.  Moreover,  there  was  value  even  in  the  opposition  she 
had  aroused.  Whittier  wrote  to  Garrison:  "What  a  glorious 
work  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  has  wrought.  Thanks  for  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law !  Better  would  it  be  for  slavery  if  that  law 
had  never  been  enacted ;  for  it  gave  occasion  for  '  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin.'  "  And  Garrison  wrote  in  turn  to  Mrs.  Stowe  :  "  I  esti 
mate  the  value  of  anti-slavery  writing  by  the  abuse  it  brings. 
Now  all  the  defenders  of  slavery  have  let  me  alone  and  are 
abusing  you."  The  volume  of  objection  was  so  great  and  so 
much  of  it  was  directed  at  the  honesty  of  the  work  that  the 

1  In  view  of  the  lack  of  any  copyright  protection  it  is  interesting  to  record 
that  three  of  the  London  publishers  offered  Mrs.  Stowe  an  interest  in  the 
sales  of  their  editions. 


HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE  303 

author  reluctantly  compiled  soon  after  a  "  Key  to  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,"  in  which  she  presented  documentary  evidence  for  every 
kind  of  fact  used  in  the  story ;  and  of  this  she  was  able  to 
write  :  "  Not  one  fact  or  statement  in  it  has  been  disproved  as 
yet.  I  have  yet  to  learn  of  even  an  attempt  to  disprove." 

The  only  fair  basis  for  criticizing  "  Uncle  Tom "  is  as  a 
piece  of  propagandist  literature.  It  was  not  even  a  "  problem 
novel."  It  was  a  story  with  an  avowed  "purpose  " :  "to  awaken 
sympathy  and  feeling  for  the  African  race,  as  they  exist  among 
us ;  to  show  their  wrongs  and  sorrows,  under  a  system  so 
necessarily  cruel  and  unjust  as  to  defeat  and  do  away  the  good 
effects  of  all  that  can  be  attempted  for  them,  by  their  best 
friends,  under  it."  Mrs.  Stowe  felt  no  pride  in  it  as  a  story, 
referring  with  perfect  composure  to  the  criticisms  on  its  artistry.  ^ 
But  as  a  popular  document  she  composed  it  with  the  greatest 
of  art.  It  was  based  on  a  profound  conviction  and  on  unassail 
able  facts.  It  was  a  passionate  assault  on  slavery,  but  it  was 
candid  in  its  acknowledgments  that  many  a  slaveholder  was 
doing  his  best  to  alleviate  the  system.  Far  more  than  half  the 
book  is  devoted  to  kindly  masters  and  well-treated  bondsmen ; 
the  tragedy  of  Uncle  Tom  is  emphasized  by  the  frustrated  or 
careless  benevolence  of  the  Shelbys  and  St.  Clare.  The  appeals 
to  antislavery  prejudice,  moreover,  could  not  have  been  more 
effective.  The  democratic  movement  which  had  swept  Europe 
in  1848  was  fresh  in  the  minds  of  all  thinking  people.  The 
challenge  to  Biblical  Christian  principle  was  made  in  a  day  when 
the  citation  of  Scriptural  authority  was  almost  universally  effec 
tive.  The  natural  resentment  at  beholding  virtue  thwarted  by 
viciousness  was  stimulated  at  every  turn  in  the  story.  And  the 
frank  association  of  beauty  of  character  with  beauty  of  form 
served  its  purpose.  "  Let  it  be  considered,  for  instance,"  wrote 
Ruskin  in  "  Modern  Painters,"  "  exactly  how  far  in  the  com 
monest  lithograph  of  some  utterly  popular  subject — for  instance, 
the  teaching  of  Uncle  Tom  by  Eva  —  the  sentiment  which  is 
supposed  to  be  excited  by  the  exhibition  of  Christianity  in 


304       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

youth,  is  complicated  by  Eva's  having  a  dainty  foot  and  a  well- 
made  slipper."  This  was  a  chance  illustration  for  Ruskin,  who 
was  writing  about  pictorial  art,  but  the  point  of  it  is  fully  illus 
trated  by  the  visible  charms  of  Eliza,  Eva,  Emmeline,  and 
Cassie,  as  well  as  of  George  Harris,  George  Shelby,  and  St. 
Clare.  Uncle  Tom  was  almost  the  only  good  character  who 
needed  the  defense  "  Handsome  is  that  handsome  does."  It  is 
not  at  all  likely  that  Mrs.  Stowe  calculated  on  these  various 
appeals — democratic,  theological,  sentimental.  In  fact  we  have 
her  word  for  it  that  the  book  "  wrote  itself."  With  a  moder 
ately  developed  talent  for  story-writing  she  happened  to  have 
just  the  tone  of  mind  and  the  level  of  culture  which  were 
attuned  to  the  temper  of  her  day,  and  she  employed  them  to 
the  utmost  effect.  Moreover,  she  used  them  just  as  Whittier 
used  his  powers  in  some  of  his  moralistic  poetry,  not  relying 
on  her  narrative  to  carry  its  own  burdens  but  expounding  it  as 
she  went  along  and  appending  a  chapter  of  "  Concluding  Re 
marks  "  with  various  odds  and  ends  of  afterthought  —  matters 
which  do  not  belong  in  a  novel  and  which  do  not  even  belong 
together  in  any  well-organized  chapter,  but  matters  which  in  a 
persuasive  document  doubtless  were  of  great  value  in  bringing 
back  to  the  application  the  minds  of  those  readers  who  may 
have  been  diverted  by  the  sheer  human  interest  of  the  tale. 

"  Uncle  Tom  "  was  a  success  which,  of  course,  could  not  be 
duplicated.  The  second  antislavery  novel,  "  Dred,  a  Tale  of 
the  Great  Dismal  Swamp,"  sold  enormously  on  the  strength  of 
its  predecessor  and  on  its  own  merits,  but  it  could  only  fan 
the  embers  which  had  previously  been  inflamed.  The  task  had 
been  done ;  and  though  it  was  well  repeated,  and  though  the 
application  pointed  this  time  to  the  degrading  effects  of  slavery 
on  the  master  class,  "  Dred  "  could  never  be  anything  but  an 
aftermath  to  "  Uncle  Tom." 

With  a  removal  to  Andover,  Massachusetts,  in  1852,  Mrs. 
Stowe  accompanied  her  husband  to  his  last  post  in  another 
theological  school,  settling  into  a  congenial  New  England 


HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE  305 

village  in  comfort  at  last  and  among  cultured  and  orthodox 
neighbors.  And  here  she  continued  to  write  until  her  final 
move  to  Hartford,  doing  her  best  work  in  the  field  of  provin 
cial  stories  of  New  England  life  and  character.  The  first  of 
these,  "  The  Minister's  Wooing,"  was  her  contribution  to  the 
newly  established  Atlantic  Monthly.  With  her  recent  successes 
fresh  in  the  public  mind,  she  was  an  indispensable  "  selling 
feature "  for  the  ambitious  magazine.  With  this  novel  she 
made  her  first  attempt,  since  the  forgotten  "  Mayflower  "  vol 
ume,  to  write  a  story  in  which  the  moral  should  take  care  of 
itself.  There  was  a  moral,  to  be  sure,  and  a  striking  one,  for 
it  pointed  to  a  distrust  of  the  older  New  England  Calvinism 
and  made  clear  the  distinction  between  a  religion  that  uplifts 
and  a  theology  that  turns  to  scorn  the  religion  it  assumes  to 
fortify.  In  Simeon  Brown  she  developed  the  obnoxious  pro 
fessor  of  the  declining  faith. 

He  was  one  of  that  class  of  people  who,  of  a  freezing  day,  will 
plant  themselves  directly  between  you  and  the  fire,  and  there  stand 
and  argue  to  prove  that  selfishness  is  the  root  of  all  moral  evil.  .  .  . 
He  was  one  of  those  men  who  suppose  themselves  submissive  to  the 
divine  will,  to  the  uttermost  extent  demanded  by  the  extreme  theology 
of  that  day,  simply  because  they  have  no  nerves  to  feel,  no  imagina 
tion  to  conceive  what  endless  happiness  or  suffering  is,  and  who  deal 
therefore  with  the  great  problem  of  the  salvation  or  damnation  of 
myriads  as  a  problem  of  theological  algebra,  to  be  worked  out  by 
their  inevitable  #,  y,  2.1 

It  answers  to  the  refrain  of  "  The  Deacon's  Masterpiece," 
which  appeared  while  she  was  writing  the  book :  "  Logic  is 
logic.  That 's  all  I  say." 

It  is  no  accident,  therefore,  that  she  represents  Simeon,  this 
piece  of  corrugated  inflexibility,  as  equally  far  from  Dr.  Hopkins, 
the  large-hearted  Puritan  who  was  bigger  than  his  creed,  and 
from  young  James  Marvin,  who  wanted  to  be  better  than  he 
was  but  had  no  creed  at  all.  In  the  chapter  ''Which  Treats 

-x..  *  See  "Theological  Tea,"  chap.  iv. 


306       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  Romance"  Mrs.  Stowe  perhaps  did  not  let  the  moral  wholly 
take  care  of  itself,  since  she  came  into  court  as  a  special 
pleader  for  beauty  as  an  ally  of  religion  and  brought  an 
indictment  against  the  niggardliness  of  a  life  founded  on  a 
dogmatic  dread  of  eternal  fire.  The  moral  of  the  book,  if  one 
must  be  given  in  a  sentence,  is  that  love  realized  is  even  finer 
than  love  renounced. 

Like  "Uncle  Tom"  and  "Dred,"  "The  Minister's  Wooing" 
has  its  element  of  instruction  as  well  as  of  edification,  for  it  is 
a  studied  and  faithful  picture  of  Rhode  Island  life  just  after 
the  Revolution  —  a  period  about  as  remote  from  Mrs.  Stowe 
as  the  slave-story  epoch  is  from  the  modern  reader.  And  be 
cause  it  is  less  of  an  allegory  the  characters  are  more  lifelike, 
not  having  to  carry  each  his  Christian's  pack  of  argument  on 
his  shoulders.  As  Lowell  stated,1  they  were  set  in  contrast  not 
by  the  simple  and  obvious  method  in  fiction  of  putting  them  in 
different  social  ranks  —  aristocrat  and  commoner,  master  and 
man,  Roundhead  and  Cavalier,  pioneer,  Indian  and  townsman. 
Between  Mrs.  Stowe's  village  folk  caste  distinctions  were  of 
little  moment ;  a  careful  realism  was  taxed  to  show  the  vital 
and  homely  differences  between  one  individual  and  another. 
Her  success  in  this  respect  is  what  gives  any  distinction  to 
"The  Pearl  of  Orr's  Island"  (1862).  The  Pearl  herself,  who 
is  a  bit  of  labeled  symbolism  (chap,  xxviii),  —  a  Little  Eva 
transported  to  the  Maine  coast  and  thence  to  heaven,  —  is 
almost  the  only  insignificant  character.  Moses  Pennell,  an 
exotic,  is  comparatively  lifelike,  and  the  actual  village  people 
are  as  real  as  can  be. 

"Oldtown  Folks"  (1869)  is  Mrs.  Stowe's  most  effective  and 
least  adulterated  novel.  The  people  of  the  story  are  many  and 
varied,  ranging  from  Sam  Lawson,  the  village  Rip  Van  Winkle, 
to  the  choicest  of  Old  Boston  adornments  of  society.  While 
the  book  had  no  social  purpose  it  had  the  avowed  narrative 
"  object  ...  to  interpret  to  the  world  the  New  England  life 

1  New  York  Tribune,  June  13,  1859. 


HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE  307 


and  character  in  that  particular  time  in  its  history  which  may 
be  called  the  seminal  period  "  —  a  statement  followed  by  the 
complacent  and  thoroughly  provincial  assertion  that  "  New 
England  was  the  seed-bed  of  this  great  American  Republic, 
and  of  all  that  is  likely  to  come  of  it."  It  should  be  remem 
bered  in  Mrs.  Stowe's  defense  that  when  she  wrote  these 
words  the  cleavage  between  North  and  South  could  account  for 
many  asperities  from  both  sides  and  that  to  most  Easterners 
"Trans-Mississippi"  meant  territory  rather  than  people.  In 
"breadth  of  canvas,"  to  resort  to  the  slang  of  criticism,  "Old- 
town  Folks"  is  in  Mrs.  Stowe's  whole  output  what  "Middle- 
march"  is  in  George  Eliot's.  It  is  filled  with  popular  tableaux  — 
in  the  old  Meeting  House,  in  the  Grandmother's  Kitchen,  at 
the  Manor  House,  in  the  coach  on  its  grave  progress  to  Boston, 
in  the  school  and  its  surroundings ;  and  it  is  red-lettered  with 
festivals  in  which  the  richest  flavor  of  social  life  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century  is  developed. 

As  a  life  story  of  the  four  youthful  characters  it  does  not 
linger  vividly  in  mind.  One  does  not  recall  them  and  their 
subjective  experiences  half  so  clearly  as  one  does  their  intel 
lectual  and  social  and  material  surroundings.  Yet  the  shape  of- 
their  life  experience  was  determined  by  just  these  external  in 
fluences  ;  and  how  clearly  they  belonged  to  a  bygone  period 
appears  at  a  glance  of  comparison  with  any  similar  twentieth- 
century  story.1 

Margaret  Deland's  "The  Iron  Woman,"  for  example,  is  a 
companion  picture  of  four  young  people,  but  with  how  great  a 
difference !  The  new  industrialism,  the  decline  of  a  theology 
which  is  only  a  relic  in  the  iron  woman,  Mrs.  Maitland,  the 
post-Victorian  attitude  toward  sex  and  the  family,  suggest  the 
vast  change  in  the  fashions  of  human  thought  in  a  half  cen 
tury  ;  and  this  is  no  less  convincing  because  the  conclusions  of 

1  This  distinction  is  valid  even  though  the  Oldtown  folks  belonged  to 
Mrs.  Stowe's  childhood.  The  Andover  of  her  later  years  was  Oldtown  in  all 
essential  respects. 


308        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Mrs.  Deland's  characters  are  practically  identical  with  those  of 
Mrs.  Stowe's.  With  Mrs.  Stowe  marriage  is  a  finality  and  sex 
ual  sin  a  damnation  in  the  sight  of  God.  With  Mrs.  Deland 
marriage  is  an  expedient  and  a  protection  for  the  woman  who 
may  otherwise  be  abandoned,  and  sin  is  punished  in  remorse 
and  loss  of  reputation.  Mrs.  Stowe  is  moved  by  the  thought 
of  hell ;  Mrs.  Deland,  by  the  possibility  of  Promethean  tortures 
from  within.  And  in  the  later  book  capital  and  labor  loom  up 
to  afford  the  background  supplied  in  the  earlier  story  by  the 
church  and  its  communicants. 

In  the  quarter  century  remaining  to  her  after  the  writing  of 
11  Oldtown  Folks,"  Mrs.  Stowe's  life  was  a  quiet  fulfillment 
of  her  earlier  career.  From  a  Florida  plantation  on  which  she 
spent  her  winters  she  worked  for  the  welfare  of  the  negro  and 
the  upbuilding  of  the  South.  She  labored  as  before  in  coopera 
tion  with  the  church,  but  her  repugnance  for  the  grimness  of 
Galvanism  had  led  her  to  become  an  Episcopalian.  As  a 
novelist  she  kept  on  in  the  exposition  of  New  England  and 
Northern  life  to  the  mild  gratification  of  the  reading  public 
which  she  had  already  won  —  a  reading  public  who  enjoyed 
what  Lowell  almost  too  cleverly  called  "water  gruel  of  fiction, 
thinned  with  sentiment  and  thickened  with  morality."  Her 
enduring  fame  will  doubtless  rest  on  the  fact  that  she  was  a 
story-writer  of  moderate  talent  who  in  one  memorable  instance 
devoted  her  gift  to  the  making  of  American  history. 

•  » 

BOOK  LIST 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE.  Works.  The  writings  of  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe,  with  biographical  introductions.  1899.  16  vols.  These  ap 
peared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows:  Mayflower,  1843  ;  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,  1852;  A  Key  to  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  1853;  Sunny 
Memories  of  Foreign  Lands,  1854;  Dred,  1856;  The  Minister's 
Wooing,  1859;  The  Pearl  of  Orr's  Island,  1862;  Agnes  of  Sorrento, 
1862;  House  and  Home  Papers,  1864;  Little  Foxes,  1865;  Religious 
Poems,  1867;  Queer  Little  People,  1867;  The  Chimney  Corner, 
1868;  Oldtown  Folks,  1869;  Pink  and  White  Tyranny,  1871; 


HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE  309 

Oldtown  Fireside  Stories,  1871 ;  My  Wife  and  I,  1871 ;  We  and  Our 
Neighbors,  1875;  Poganuc  People,  1878;  A  Dog's  Mission,  1881. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  Charles  E.  Stowe.    1890.    The  biographical 

introductions  in  the  standard  set  are  valuable. 
CROWE,  MARTHA  FOOTE.   Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.   1913. 
ERSKINE,  JOHN.    Leading  American  Novelists.   1910. 
FIELDS,  MRS.  ANNIE.  Life  and  Letters  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.  1897. 
STOWE,  C.  E.  and  L.  B.    Life  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.    1911. 

The  following  are  among  the  more  important  of  the  many  maga 
zine  articles  that  appeared  in  the  months  just  after  the  death  of 
Mrs.  Stowe : 

BURTON,  RICHARD.    Century,  Vol.  XXX,  p.  690. 

COOKE,  G.  W.   New  England  Magazine  (N.  S.),  Vol.  XV,  p.  3. 

FIELDS,  MRS.  ANNIE.   Atlantic,  Vol.  LXXVIII,  p.  15. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.   Nation,  Vol.  LXIII,  p.  24. 

LEE,  G.  S.    Critic,  Vol.  XXX,  p.  281. 

PHELPS  (WARD),  E.  S.   McClure's,  Vol.  VII,  p.  3. 

WARD,  W.  H.   Forum,  Vol.  XXI,  p.  727. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Contrast  the  conditions  of  authorship  and  the  circumstances  of 
publication  for  Jane  Austen  and  Mrs.  Stowe.  Compare  those  of 
George  Eliot  and  Mrs.  Stowe. 

With  reference  to  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  read  Agnes  Repplier's 
essay  "  Books  that  have  Hindered  Me  "  in  "  Points  of  View." 

Read  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin "  for  Mrs.  Stowe's  attitude  toward 
the  people  of  the  South  in  distinction  to  her  attitude  toward  the 
institution  of  slavery. 

Read  "  Oldtown  Folks "  or  "  The  Minister's  Wooing "  for 
Mrs.  Stowe's  exposition  of  the  orthodox  theology  in  either.  If  you 
can  read  both,  note  whether  there  is  any  difference  in  her  attitude 
toward  the  faith  of  her  fathers  in  the  two  books. 

Compare  Mrs.  Stowe's  New  England  village  characters  with  those 
of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  in  any  of  his  three  novels. 

Compare  for  the  broad  picture  of  a  community  and  an  epoch 
George  Eliot's  "  Middlemarch  "  and  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Oldtown  Folks." 

Develop  more  fully  the  comparison  or  the  contrast  between 
"Oldtown  Folks"  and  Mrs.  Deland's  "  The  Iron  Woman." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES 

In  the  roster  of  American  men  of  letters  it  is  hard  to  think 
of  any  other  who  is  so  completely  the  product  of  a  district  and 
the  spokesman  for  it  as  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (1809-1894). 
His  whole  lifetime  was  passed  in  two  neighborhoods  —  that  of 
Harvard  College  in  old  Cambridge  and  that  of  Beacon  Hill  in 
oldest  Boston.  He  was  born  in  the  college  town  in  1809,  the 
same  year  with  Lincoln.  His  father,  the  Reverend  Abiel  Holmes, 
was  a  fine  exponent  of  the  old  orthodoxy  and  of  the  old  breed 
ing  and  a  historian  of  the  American  Revolution.  He  was  an 
inheritor  of  the  blood  of  the  Bradstreet,  Phillips,  Hancock, 
Quincy,  and  Wendell  families,  a  kind  of  youth  whose  "  aspect 
is  commonly  slender,  —  his  face  is  smooth,  and  apt  to  be 
pallid,  —  his  features  are  regular  and  of  a  certain  delicacy,  — 
his  eye  is  bright  and  quick,  —  his  lips  play  over  the  thought 
he  utters  as  a  pianist's  fingers  dance  over  their  music."  1  It 
was  a  type  for  whose  aptitudes  Holmes  felt  the  greatest 
respect.  He  thanked  God  for  the  republicanism  of  nature 
which  every  now  and  then  developed  a  "  large,  uncombed 
youth  "  who  strode  awkwardly  into  intellectual  leadership.  He 
acknowledged  a  Lincoln  when  he  came  to  maturity,  but  he 
expected  more  of  a  Chauncey  or  an  Ellery  6r  an  Edwards 
because  of  his  inheritance. 

A  prevailing  alertness  of  mind  in  Holmes's  generation  offset 
the  natural  conservatism  which  belongs  to  an  aristocracy.  For 
a  hundred  years  Harvard  had  been  more  liberal  than  Yale. 
The  cleavage  was  already  taking  place  between  Unitarian  and 
Trinitarian  or  Congregational  believers.  To  be  sure,  the  eyes 

1  "  Elsie  Venner,"  chap,  i,  "  The  Brahmin  Caste  of  New  England." 

310 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  311 

of  Abiel  Holmes  were  focused  on  the  past,  and  he  sent  his 
son  to  be  schooled  under  the  safe  influences  of  Phillips  Andover 
Academy,  which  were  fostered  by  the  orthodox  theological 
seminary  just  across  the  road.  But  even  here  Wendell  —  as 
he  was  called  —  decided  against  entering  the  ministry  because 
a  certain  clergyman  "  looked  and  talked  so  like  an  undertaker." 
And  when  he  entered  college  in  his  home  town,  while  he 
faced  the  traditional  required  course  of  classical  languages, 
history,  mathematics,  and  moral  philosophy,  the  wind  from  over 
the  sea  was  blowing  through  it,  and  he  breathed  the  atmosphere 
which  was  passing  into  the  blood  of  Emerson  and  Thoreau  and 
George  Ripley  and  the  other  Transcendentalists-to-be. 

In  his  college  days  he  was  a  little  cheerful  student  of 
average  performance  who  refused  then  as  always  to  take 
himself  soberly,  although  he  did  not  lack  inner  seriousness. 
He  practised  his  gift  for  writing  and  was  rewarded  by  the 
acceptance  of  some  of  his  efforts  in  the  fashionable  Annuals  of 
the  day  —  repositories  of  politely  sentimental  tales,  sketches, 
and  poems  in  fancy  bindings  which  ornamented  the  marble- 
topped  tables  in  the  "  best  rooms."  Under  his  apparently 
aimless  amiability,  however,  there  was  an  independence  of 
judgment  which  twice  recorded  itself,  in  1829  and  '30.  The 
first  time  was  on  the  occasion  of .  an  issue  in  his  father's 
church  when  the  son  was  forced  to  agree  with  the  liberal 
majority,  who  literally  took  the  pastor's  pulpit  from  him,  so 
that  he  had  to  reestablish  himself  in  North  Cambridge.  Few 
harder  tests  could  be  devised  than  one  between  loyalty  to 
conviction  and  loyalty  to  family  interests.  The  other  sign 
of  independence  was  his  choice  of  a  profession.  A  boy  of 
his  heritage  was  socially  if  not  divinely  predestined  for  some 
sort  of  intellectual  life.  If  he  went  to  college,  assurance  was 
made  doubly  sure  that  he  would  not  become  a  business  man. 
From  the  outset  he  rejected  the  ministry  as  his  "  calling."  He 
shrank  from  the  formal  complexities  of  the  law  as  he  did 
from  the  logic  of  the  theologians.  The  thought  of  teaching 


312        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

did  not  seem  to  enter  his  mind.  Literature  could  not  afford 
him  a  livelihood.  By  elimination,  then,  only  medicine  was  left 
to  him,  but  in  his  day  medicine  did  not  occupy  a  position  of 
dignity  equal  with  the  other  professions.  Medical  science  was 
still  in  earliest  youth,  and  the  practice  of  "  physic  "  was  jointly 
discredited  by  the  barber,  the  veterinary,  the  midwife,  the 
"yarb  doctor,"  and  the  miscellaneous  quack.  This  young 
"Brahmin,"  however,  saw  the  chance  for  contributing  to  the 
progress  of  a  budding  science,  and  made  his  decision  with 
quiet  disregard  of  social  prejudice. 

Study  in  Paris,  successful  research  work,  practice  in  Boston, 
and  a  year's  teaching  at  Dartmouth  College  in  New  Hampshire 
led  to  an  appointment  on  the  medical  faculty  at  Harvard 
which  he  held  actively  from  1847  to  1882  and  as  emeritus 
until  his  death.  As  a  practitioner  he  was  not  remarkably 
successful.  At  the  first  his  extremely  youthful  appearance  and 
his  jocosity  of  manner  stood  in  the  way.  People  could  not  be 
expected  to  flock  to  the  office  of  a  young  man  who  was  known 
to  have  said  that  "  all  small  fevers  would  be  gratefully 
received."  And  later  his  interest  in  things  literary  was  regarded 
with  distrust  by  prospective  patients.  As  a  teacher,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  was  unusually  effective  because  of  the  traits 
which  made  him  a  poor  business-getter.  He  was  vivacious 
and  deft  in  his  methods.  He  knew  how  to  put  his  ideas  in 
order,  he  was  a  master  hand  at  expounding  them,  and  he 
was  ingenious  in  providing  neat  formulas  for  memorizing  the 
myriad  details  of  physiology  and  anatomy. 

His  profession  supplied  Holmes  with  a  background  of 
thought  which  was  different  from  any  of  his  contemporaries. 
It  supplied  him  with  titles  and  whole  poems,  such  as  "  Nux 
Postccenatica,"  "  The  Stethoscope  Song,"  and  "  The  Mysterious 
Illness,"  with  literary  essays,  such  as  "The  Physiology  of 
Versification,"  and  with  a  whole  volume  of  medical  essays.  It 
furnished  the  motives  for  his  three  "medicated  novels,"  — 
prenatal  influence  in  "  Elsie  Venner,"  physical  magnetism  (by 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  313 


its  opposite)  in  "  A  Mortal  Antipathy,"  and  telepathy  in  "  The 
Guardian  Angel."  It  was  the  basis  for  scores  of  passages  and 
hundreds  of  allusions  in  the  four  volumes  of  the  "  Breakfast 
Table "  series.  And,  furthermore,  in  the  natural  sympathy 
which  it  generated  in  him  for  every  branch  of  progressive 
science  it  gave  ground  for  the  felicitous  toast : l  "  The  union 
of  Science  and  Literature  —  a  happy  marriage,  the  fruits  of 
which  are  nowhere  seen  to  better  advantage  than  in  our 
American  Holmes."  This  is  not  to  say  that  Holmes  was  alone 
in  his  consciousness  of  science.  Thoreau  was  fully  as  aware 
of  it  in  the  field  of  plant  and  animal  study  ;  all  things  considered, 
Emerson  and  Whitman  were  more  responsive  to  its  deeper 
spiritual  implications.  It  is  rather  that  Holmes  had  his  special 
avenue  of  approach  through  the  lore  of  the  physician. 

The  Boston  to  which  Holmes  removed  when  he  began  his 
professional  career  was  all-sufficing  to  him  for  the  rest  of 
his  life.  On  Beacon  Hill,  the  stronghold  of  the  old  social 
order,  there  was  an  eager,  outreaching  intellectual  life.  On 
its  slope  was  the  Boston  Athenaeum ;  just  below  were  the 
Old  Corner  Book  Store  and  the  little  shop  maintained  by 
Elizabeth  Peabody.  The  theaters  were  rising  at  its  foot. 
Music  was  being  fostered  under  the  wise  persistence  of  James 
S.  D wight,  Washington  Allston  was  doing  the  best  of  his 
painting,  and  the  traditions  of  good  statesmanship  were  being 
maintained  by  men  like  Wendell  Phillips  and  Charles  Sumner. 
To  cap  all,  good-fellowship  reigned  and  many  a  quiet  dinner 
became  a  feast  of  reason  and  a  flow  of  soul.  "  Nature  and  art 
combined  to  charm  the  senses ;  the  equatorial  zone  of  the 
system  was  soothed  by  well-studied  artifices ;  the  faculties  were 
off  duty,  and  fell  into  their  natural  attitudes  ;  you  saw  wisdom 
in  slippers  and  science  in  a  short  jacket."  Although  Holmes 
discounted  it  in  the  moment  of  utterance,  he  was  not  unfriendly 
to  the  dictum  :  "  Boston  State-house  is  the  Hub  of  the  Solar 

1  Meeting  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  May,  1853.  The  response 
was  a  poem. 


314        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

System.  You  couldn't  pry  that  out  of  a  Boston  man  if  you 
had  the  tire  of  all  creation  straightened  out  for  a  crowbar." 

Moreover,  as  the  half  century  of  his  Boston  residence  pro 
gressed  there  was  no  waning  in  the  intellectual  life.  The 
obvious  leaders,  whose  names  are  known  to  everyone,  were 
surrounded  by  a  large  circle  of  thinking  men  and  women.  At 
the  corner  of  the  Common,  just  across  from  the  Statehouse, 
was  the  mansion  of  George  Ticknor,  then  retired  from  his 
Harvard  professorship  but  hospitable  in  the  offer  of  his  rich 
library  to  the  new  generation  of  scholars.  William  Ticknor 
founded  a  publishing  business  into  which  he  soon  took  young 
James  T.  Fields,  a  house  which  under  various  firm  names  has 
had  a  distinguished  and  unbroken  career.  Elizabeth  Peabody 
was  a  radioactive  center  of  all  sorts  of  enterprises  and  enthu 
siasms —  the  Pestalozzian  Temple  School,  the  "conversations" 
on  history,  the  book  shop,  and  the  temporary  publishing  of 
the  Dial.  Francis  H.  Underwood  was  the  untiring  champion 
of  the  idea  which  with  perfect  unselfishness  he  handed  over 
to  the  abler  founders  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  And  scores  of 
others  with  less  definite  fruits  of  no  less  definite  interest  in 
life  talked  well  and  listened  well  and  wrote  well  for  the  passing 
reader  of  the  day. 

In  this  community  Holmes  early  took  his  place  as  the 
accepted  humorist,  and  for  the  first  twenty-five  years  he  wrote 
almost  entirely  in  verse.  The  fact  that  two  of  his  earliest  and 
most  famous  poems  were  anything  but  funny  reenforces  the 
point  rather  than  gainsays  it.  For  the  humorist,  in  contrast 
to  the  joker,  is  a  serious  man  with  a  special  method  which  he 
employs  usually  but  not  always.  If  Holmes  had  not  been 
capable  of  blazing  with  the  indignation  of  "  Old  Ironsides " 
or  glowing  with  the  sympathy  of  "  The  Last  Leaf,"  he  would 
have  been  a  clever  dispenser  of  jollities  but  not  a  commentator 
on  life.  Much  of  his  youthful  composition  was  of  the  lighter 
variety  —  pleasant  extravagances  on  the  level  of  the  "  Croaker 
Papers,"  not  quite  up  to  Salmagundi  (see  pp.  116,  134). 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  315 

"The  Music  Grinders,  "The  Comet,"  "Daily  Trials,"  and 
"  The  Stethoscope  Song  "  belong  in  this  class.  More  humorous 
and  less  jocose  are  the  verse  with  a  definite  satirical  turn. 
"  The  Ballad  of  the  Oysterman  "  was  a  gibe  at  the  sentimental 
lays  to  be  found  in  all  the  Annuals.  "  My  Aunt"  hit  off  the 
Apollinean  Institute  type  of  Young  Lady  Finishing  School  to 
which  he  returned  in  a  chapter  of  "  Elsie  Venner  "  ;  the  sort 
of  subject  to  which  he  returned  too  in  his  shafts  at  the  Latter- 
Day  Adventists,  in  "  Latter-Day  Warnings,"  and  at  the  decline 
of  Calvinism,  in  "  The  Deacon's  Masterpiece." 

At  the  same  time  Holmes  won  a  place  as  the  local  laureate, 
—  for  his  class  of  1829,  for  Harvard,  and  for  every  kind  of 
occasion,  grave  and  gay,  on  which  some  appropriate  verse  could 
point  a  moral  and  adorn  the  program.  This  is  an  easy  accom 
plishment  for  those  who  have  the  gift,  but  both  difficult  and 
dull  in  the  hands  of  many  a  poet  who  is  capable  of  higher 
things.  It  demands  fluency  of  pen,  ready  inventiveness,  infor 
mality,  and  a  confident  good  humor  in  its  oral  delivery.  These 
all  belonged  to  Holmes,  and  not  least  of  them  a  gracious 
social  manner.  It  is  far  easier  to  depreciate  this  kind  of  verse 
than  it  is  to  be  consistently  effective  in  it. 

Twice  in  his  early  maturity  he  wrote  in  verse  on  the  theory 
of  poetry.  The  first,  in  1836,  when  he  was  entering  the 
medical  profession,  was  his  Phi  Beta  Kappa  poem  "Poetry"; 
the  second  was  "  Urania,"  in  1846,  shortly  before  he  accepted 
his  Harvard  professorship.  The  object  of  "  Poetry,"  he  wrote 
in  a  preface  for  its  publication,  was  "  to  express  some  general 
truths  on  the  sources  and  the  machinery  of  poetry ;  to  sketch 
some  changes  which  may  be  said  to  have  taken  place  in  its 
history,  constituting  four  grand  eras ;  and  to  point  out  some 
less  obvious  manifestations  of  the  poetic  principle."  In  old 
age  he  looked  back  on  this  ambitious  early  effort  with  kindly 
indulgence,  and  allowed  it  to  stand  as  a  matter  of  biographical 
interest,  although  it  was  so  evidently  the  product  "  of  a  young 
person  trained  after  the  schools  of  classical  English  verse  as 


316        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

represented  by  Pope,  Goldsmith,  and  Campbell,  with  whose  lines 
his  memory  was  early  stocked/'  When,  however,  he  wrote 
"  Urania,  a  Rhymed  Lesson  "  he  wore  a  friendly  smile  and  did 
his  teaching  in  a  less  didactic  way.  He  knew  his  audience,  he 
said,  and  he  knew  that  they  all  expected  to  be  amused. 

I  know  a  tailor,  once  a  friend  of  mine, 

Expects  great  doings  in  the  button  line,  — 

For  mirth's  concussions  rip  the  outward  case, 

And  plant  the  stitches  in  a  tenderer  place, 

I  know  my  audience,  —  these  shall  have  their  due ; 

A  smile  awaits  them  ere  my  song  is  through  1 

But,  he  went  on  to  say,  he  knew  himself,  too,  and  he  pro 
posed  no  more  to  be  the  buffoon  than  to  be  the  savage  satirist. 
Beneath  his  smiles  there  was  a  kindly  seriousness.  A  dozen 
years  later,  in  the  fifth  of  the  "Autocrat"  papers,  he  put  the 
case  in  a  little  allegory,  the  end  of  which  is  worth  quoting 
in  full : 

The  stone  is  ancient  error.  The  grass  is  human  nature  borne  down 
and  bleached  of  all  its  color  by  it.  The  shapes  which  are  found  beneath 
are  the  crafty  beings  which  thrive  in  darkness,  and  the  weaker  organ 
isms  kept  helpless  by  it.  He  who  turns  the  stone  over  is  whosoever 
puts  the  staff  of  truth  to  the  old  lying  incubus,  no  matter  whether  he 
do  it  with  a  serious  face  or  a  laughing  one.  The  next  year  stands  for 
the  coming  time.  Then  shall  the  nature  which  had  lain  blanched  and 
broken  rise  in  its  full  stature  and  native  hues  in  the  sunshine.  Then 
shall  God's  minstrels  build  their  nests  in  the  hearts  of  a  new-born 
humanity.  Then  shall  beauty  —  Divinity  taking  outlines  and  color  — 
light  upon  the  souls  of  men  as  the  butterfly,  image  of  the  beatified 
spirit  rising  from  the  dust,  soars  from  the  shell  that  held  a  poor  grub, 
which  would  never  have  found  wings,  had  not  the  stone  been  lifted. 

By  these  stages,  then,  Holmes  concluded  that  he  was  an 
essayist  and  developed  into  one.  The  "Poetry"  of  1836  was 
entitled  "  A  Metrical  Essay,"  and  it  was,  without  intending  to 
be,  distinctly  prosaic.  "Urania,"  of  1846,  was  self-described  as 
"A  Rhymed  Lesson"  and  affected  to  be  nothing  more.  At 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  317 

last  "  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table  "  —  adopting  the  title 
and  the  form  of  an  unsuccessful  beginning  in  the  New  Eng 
land  Magazine  of  1831-1832  —  resorted  frankly  to  prose  and 
achieved  a  wider  reputation  for  Holmes  than  all  the  foregoing 
verse  had  done.1  The  young  person  trained  through  the  read 
ing  of  Pope,  Goldsmith,  and  Campbell  was  in  the  end  fitted 
to  do  his  best  work  after  the  manner  of  Addison,  Goldsmith, 
and  Lamb.  From  the  appearance  of  "  The  Autocrat "  Holmes's 
verse  was  subordinated  in  bulk  and  importance  to  his  prose. 

With  his  assumption  of  the  Atlantic  editorship,  Lowell  had 
set  the  prime  condition  that  Holmes  should  become  a  regular 
contributor,  and  it  is  evident  from  the  motto  on  the  title  page, 
"  Every  man  his  own  Bos  well,"  that  Holmes's  conversation  had 
furnished  the  suggestion  for  the  series.  The  vehicle  was  per 
fectly  adapted  to  the  load  it  was  devised  to  carry.  The  introduc 
tion  of  a  chief  spokesman  in  a  loosely  organized  group  made 
way  for  the  casual  drift  from  topic  to  topic.  The  accident 
of  a  boarding-house  selection  justified  the  domination  by  one 
speaker  which  would  have  been  unnatural  in  any  social  group. 
The  continuity  of  the  group  gave  a  chance  for  characterization 
and  for  the  spinning  of  a  slight  narrative  thread  comparable 
to  those  on  which  the  Citizen  of  the  World  and  the  "  De 
Coverley  Papers  "  were  strung.  And  the  chief  speaker,  auto 
crat  that  he  was,  could  give  vent  to  his  thoughts  on  the  uni 
verse  without  let  or  hindrance,  and  when  the  whim  seized 
him  could  impose  his  latest  poems  upon  his  always  tolerant 
and  usually  deferential  fellow-boarders.  From  the  publication 
of  the  first  number  Lowell's  judgment  was  vindicated,  with,  the 
result  not  only  that  the  Autocrat  spoke  through  twelve  issues, 
but  that  the  thread  of  his  discourse  was  continued  with  "  The 
Professor  at  the  Breakfast-Table,"  in  1859,  was  resumed  with 

1  For  a  direct  statement  on  the  resumption  of  the  old  attempt,  see  w  The 
Autocrat's  Autobiography"  printed  as  a  foreword  to  the  volume.  For  an 
indirect  account,  see  the  passages  on  Byles  Gridley  and  his  "  Thoughts  on  the 
Universe  "  in  Holmes's  "  The  Guardian  Angel." 


3i8        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

"The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table,"  in  1871,  and  was  not 
concluded  until  the  conversations  "  Over  the  Teacups,"  in  1890. 

The  range  of  topics  cannot  be  better  shown  than  by  reference 
to  the  index  —  and  the  original  edition  was  extraordinary  in 
its  day  for  having  one.  The  "A's,"  for  example,  include  abuse 
of  all  good  attempts,  affinities,  and  antipathies,  age,  animal 
under  air-pump,  the  American  a  reenforced  Englishman,  the 
effect  of  looking  at  the  Alps,  the  power  of  seeing  analogies, 
why  anniversaries  are  dreaded  by  the  professor,  the  arguments 
which  spoil  conversation,  the  forming  American  aristocracy, 
the  use  of  stimulants  by  artists,  the  effect  of  meeting  one  of 
heaven's  assessors,  and  so  on.  The  order  in  which  they  fall 
is  hardly  more  casual  than  in  the  index.  Witness  the  eleventh 
paper:  puns,  "The  Deacon's  Masterpiece,"  slang,  dandies, 
aristocracy,  intellectual  green  fruit,  Latinized  diction  (with  the 
verses  "  ^Estivation  "),  seashore  and  mountains,  summer  resi 
dences,  space,  the  Alps,  moderate  wishes  (with  the  verses 
"Contentment"),  faithfulness  in  love,  picturesque  spots  in 
Boston,  natural  beauties  in  a  city,  dusting  a  library,  experi 
encing  life,  a  proposal  of  marriage.  The  difference  between 
their  structure  and  that  of  the  formal  essay  is  simply  that  they 
meander  like  a  stream  instead  of  following  a  predetermined 
course  like  a  canal. 

In  the  later  members  of  the  series,  and  particularly  in  the 
third  and  fourth,  there  is  an  evident  response  to  the  current  of 
nineteenth-century  thinking.  By  nature  Holmes  was  a  liberal 
but  not  a  reformer.  He  took  no  active  part  in  "  movements," 
though  he  sympathized  with  many  of  them  and  with  the  inten 
tions  of  their  wiser  promoters.  At  the  same  time  he  preferred 
for  his  own  part  to  induce  and  persuade  people  into  new  paths 
rather  than  to  shock  and  offend  them  while  they  were  still 
treading  the  old  ones.  There  is  a  note  of  considerate  caution 
in  his  espousal  of  new  ideas.  He  was  the  type  of  man  who 
will  always  be  unsatisfactory  to  extremists,  —  a  dangerous  per 
son  to  the  hidebound  conservative  and  a  tentative  trifler  to  the 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  319 

ultraradical.  His  open-mindedness  is  charmingly  demonstrated 
in  the  book  of  his  old  age,  "  Over  the  Teacups."  Few  men 
of  eighty  succeed  in  keeping  their  eyes  off  the  past  and  their 
voices  from  decrying  the  present,  but  Holmes  in  his  latest 
years  was  as  interested  in  the  developments  of  the  day  as  he 
had  been  in  the  prime  of  life. 

The  issues  of  the  Civil  War  —  to  return  from  the  tea  table 
to  the  breakfast  room  —  showed  that  Holmes  had  not  lost  the 
spark  for  righteous  indignation  in  the  thirty  years  since  the 
writing  of  "  Old  Ironsides."  "  The  Statesman's  Secret "  was 
not  as  effective  a  protest  at  Webster's  "  Seventh  of  March 
Speech"  (1850)  as  Whittier's  "  Ichabod,"  but  it  was  quite  as 
sincerely  outspoken.  "  Non- Resistance  "  and  "  The  Moral  Bully  " 
prove  that  Holmes  was  as  little  of  a  peace-at-any-price  man  as 
Lowell.  "  Brother  Jonathan's  Lament  for  Sister  Caroline  " 
was  written  in  deep  sorrow  that  the  war  had  been  precipitated, 
but  "  To  Canaan  "  was  militant  to  the  highest  degree.  Two 
other  poems,  written  in  the  years  of  the  Autocrat  and  the 
Poet,  both  in  lofty  seriousness,  came  from  "flowering  moments 
of  the  mind  "  which  lost  fewest  petals  as  they  were  recorded  in 
verse.  These  were  "  The  Chambered  Nautilus  "  and  "  A  Sun- 
Day  Hymn." 

In  all  Holmes's  writing,  whatever  the  mood  or  the  form, 
the  prevailing  method  is  cumulative.  He  is  likely  to  start  with 
an  idea,  proceed  to  a  simple  analysis  of  it,  and  expound  it  by 
a  single  analogy  elaborated  at  length  or  a  whole  series  of  them 
more  briefly  presented.  In  the  sixth  "Autocrat"  paper  he  says, 
with  some  show  of  self-restraint,  "  There  are  some  curious 
observations  I  should  like  to  make  .  .  .  but  I  think  we  are 
getting  rather  didactic."  Yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  Holmes's 
method  was  seldom  anything  but  didactic,  and  his  content  was 
frequently  such.  He  evidently  saw  at  a  flash  how  to  com 
municate  the  idea,  but,  as  he  must  have  done  hundreds  of 
times  in  the  classroom,  he  developed  it  with  what  was  at  once 
spontaneous  and  painstaking  detail.  His  most  famous  satires, 


320        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

"My  Aunt,"  "Contentment,"  and  "The  Deacon's  Master 
piece,"  are  all  illustrations  of  this  method.  Thus  in  his  "  Fare 
well  to  Agassiz,"  before  the  naturalist  left  for  South  America, 
Holmes  mentioned  that  the  mountains  were  awaiting  his 
approval,  as  were  also  five  other  natural  objects.  He  wished 
the  traveler  safety  from  the  tropical  sun  and  twenty-two  other 
dangers  and  that  he  might  succeed  in  finding  fossils  and  seven 
other  things  of  interest.  "  Bill  and  Joe  "  contains  sixty  lines 
built  up  by  the  enumerative  method  on  the  truth  that  worldly 
distinctions  disappear  for  a  moment  in  the  light  of  college 
friendships.  "  Dorothy  Q "  devotes  thirty-two  lines  to  the 
quaint  fancy  "  What  would  I  be  if  one  of  my  eight  great, 
great  grandmothers  had  married  another  man  ? "  and  "  The 
Broomstick  Train  "  a  hundred  and  forty-six  lines  to  the  con 
ceit  "  The  Salem  Witches  furnish  the  power  for  the  trolley 
cars."  In  prose,  as  a  final  illustration,  his  well-known  discus 
sion  of  the  typical  lecture  audience  in  the  sixth  "  Autocrat "  is 
about  eight  hundred  words  long :  Audiences  help  formulate 
lectures.  The  average  is  not  high.  They  are  awful  in  their 
uniformity  —  like  communities  of  ants  or  bees  —  whether  in 
New  York,  Ohio,  or  New  England  —  unless  some  special  prin 
ciple  of  selection  interferes.  They  include  fixed  elements  —  in 
age  (four) —  and  in  intelligence  (the  dull  elaborated)  —  making 
up  a  compound  vertebrate  (biological  analogy).  Kindly  elements 
conceded,  but  on  the  whole  depressing. 

Holmes  gave  the  final  epithet  to  his  novels  when  he  referred 
to  them  as  "  medicated."  For  the  other  and  more  eminent 
American  physician,  Weir  Mitchell,  fiction  was  a  resort  to 
another  world,  but  the  author  of  "Elsie  Venner "  (1861), 
"  The  Guardian  Angel  "  (1867),  and  "  The  Mortal  Antipathy  " 
(1885)  was  the  essayist-physician  extending  the  narrative  process 
a  little  farther  than  in  the  conversational  series.  The  plots 
were  supplied  by  Dr.  Holmes  and  developed  by  the  Autocrat- 
Professor-Poet.  Several  chapters  of  medical  lore  were  inter 
polated  in  each  book,  and  several  more  of  genial  exposition. 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  321 

These  latter  are  like  the  work  of  Mrs.  Stowe  except  that  their 
relation  to  story  development  is  tenuous  or  imperceptible,  and 
in  characterization  his  successes,  like  Mrs.  Stowe's,  are  with 
the  homelier  New  England  types. 

In  the  best  sense  of  the  word  Holmes  was  a  provincial 
New  Englander.  He  was  proud  of  the  traditions  of  his  dis 
trict,  devoted  to  its  welfare;  certain  of  its  capacity  for  improve 
ment,  but  sure  of  its  contribution  to  the  integrity  of  American 
character.  Although  he  did  not  share  the  deeper  enthusiasms 
of  Emerson  or  even  fully  understand  them,  he  had  much  more 
of  the  milk  of  human  kindness  in  him.  His  "  message  "  and 
his  manner  of  delivering  it  were  popular  with  the  reading 
public.  He  was  not  a  leader,  but  he  kept  up  to  the  times, 
and  he  explained  the  drift  of  them  to  many  who  might  not 
otherwise  have  perceived  what  was  going  on  in  the  world  or 
in  themselves.  In  the  tributes  which  came  from  every  quarter 
after  his  death  his  geniality  was  the  highest  common  factor  — 
a  wholesome  and  homely  trait  which  will  always  be  sure  of 
affectionate  regard  in  American  literature. 


BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES.  Riverside  Edition.  13  vols.  Prose,  Vols. 
I-X;  Poetry,  XI-XIII.  1891.  Standard  Library  Edition,  1892; 
Autocrat  Edition,  1904;  both  15  vols.  (uniform  with  Riverside 
Edition,  with  added  life  by  J.  T.  Morse  as  Vols.  XIV  and  XV).  The 
best  single  volume  of  poems  is  the  Cambridge  Edition,  1895.  His 
work  appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows:  Poems,  1836; 
Boylston  Prize  Dissertations,  1838;  Homeopathy,  and  its  Kindred 
Delusions,  1842;  Urania,  1846;  Poems,  1849;  Astraea,  1850;  The 
Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table,  1858;  The  Professor  at  the 
Breakfast-Table,  1 860 ;  Currents  and  Counter- Currents  in  Medical 
Science,  1861;  Elsie  Venner,  1861;  Songs  in  Many  Keys,  1862; 
Soundings  from  the  Atlantic,  1864;  Humorous  Poems,  1865;  The 
Guardian  Angel,  1867;  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table,  1872; 
Songs  of  Many  Seasons,  1875;  John  Lothrop  Motley,  1879;  The 
Iron  Gate,  1880  ;  Medical  Essays,  1883  ;  Pages  from  an  Old  Volume 
of  Life,  1883;  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  1885;  A  Mortal  Antipathy, 


322        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

1885;   Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe,  1887;   Before  the  Curfew, 
and  Other  Poems,  1888;  Over  the  Teacups,  1891. 

Bibliography 

A  volume  compiled  by  George  B.  Ives.    1907.   Cambridge  History  of 
American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  540-543. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  John  T.  Morse.   1896.    2  vols. 

COLLINS,  CHURTON.   The  Poetry  and  Poets  of  America. 

COOKE,  G.  W.    Dr.  Holmes  at  Fourscore.    New  England  Magazine, 

October,  1889. 
CURTIS,  G.  W.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  in  Literary  and  Social  Essays. 

1895. 
DWIGHT,  THOMAS.    Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Holmes  as  Professor  of 

Anatomy.    Scribner's,  January,  1895. 
FIELDS,  ANNIE.    Personal  Recollections  and  Unpublished  Letters, 

in  Authors  and  Friends.    1896. 

GILDER,  JEANNETTE  L.    A  Book  and  its  Story,  in  The  Genial  "Auto 
crat."   Critic,  May  9,  1896. 
HALE,  E.  E.   An  Afternoon  with  Dr.  Holmes  in  Human  Documents. 

1895. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Cheerful  Yesterdays.   1898. 
HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Contemporaries.   1899. 
HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Old  Cambridge.   1900. 
HOWELLS,   W.  D.    Oliver   Wendell    Holmes.     Harper's,   December, 

1896. 
HOWELLS,  W.  D.    Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  in  Literary  Friends  and 

Acquaintances.    1900. 
KENNEDY,  W.  S.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Poet,  Litterateur,  Scientist. 

1883. 

LANG,  ANDREW.   Adventures  among  Books.   1905. 
LODGE,  H.  C.    Certain  Accepted  Heroes  and  Other  Essays.    1897. 
LOWELL,  J.  R.    A  Fable  for  Critics.   1848. 
MATTHEWS,  BRANDER.    Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature. 

Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  in  chap,  xxiii. 

MEYNELL,  ALICE.    The  Rhythm  of  Life  and  Other  Essays.   1897. 
RICHARDSON,  C.  F.    American  Literature,  Bk.  II,  chap.  vi.   1889. 
STEDMAN,  E.  C.   Poets  of  America.   1885. 
VINCENT,  L.  H.    American  Literary  Masters.   1906. 
WOODBERRY,  G.  E.   Nation,  October  n,  1894. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  any  one  of  Holmes's  "  Breakfast-Table  "  Series  or  any  one 
of  his  novels  for  evidences  of  his  prevailing  belief  in  the  virtues  of 
an  intellectual  aristocracy. 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  323 

Do  the  same  thing  with  any  of  these  seven  books  for  the  recur 
rence  of  illustrations,  allusions,  or  whole  passages  which  only  a 
physician  would  have  been  likely  to  write. 

Note  in  any  of  these  books  or  in  any  selected  group  of  his  poems 
evidences  of  his  respect  for  the  broad  contributions  of  science  and 
scientific  thought. 

Read  poems  and  passages  of  broadest  jocosity  and  see  if  you  find 
any  wisdom  intermixed  with  their  ingenuity  and  their  good  nature. 

Compare  the  "  society  verse "  of  Holmes  with  that  of  Austin 
Dobson  or  Brander  Matthews. 

Read  at  least  a  half-dozen  poems  of  Holmes  written  in  satire  on 
contemporary  men  or  movements  and  generalize  on  them  as  you  can. 

Read  "  Poetry,"  "  Urania,"  and  "  To  my  Readers  "  for  Holmes's 
theory  of  the  content  and  the  purpose  of  poetry.  Compare  with  the 
theory  of  some  other  American  or  English  poet. 

Read  "  Elsie  Vernier,"  "  The  Guardian  Angel,"  or  "  The  Mortal 
Antipathy  "  and  criticize  it  for  its  virtues  and  defects  as  a  novel. 

Read  "  The  Guardian  Angel "  for  the  autobiographical  material 
discoverable  in  the  character  of  Byles  Gridley. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS 

In  the  metropolitan  group  of  the  latter  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  Bryant  was  dominant  until  his  death  in 
1878.  Other  conspicuous  representatives  were  Bayard  Taylor 
(1825-1878),  Richard  Henry  Stoddard  (1825-1903),  Edmund 
Clarence  Stedman  (1833-1908),  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich 
(1836-1907)  in  his  early  career,  and  —  with  a  difference  — 
Richard  Watson  Gilder  (1844-1909).  None  of  these  men 
was  born  and  brought  up  in  New  York,  and  none  but  Gilder 
partook  of  the  nature  of  the  town  as  Irving  and  even  Bryant 
and  Halleck  had  been  able  to  do  in  the  preceding  generation 
when  it  was  more  compact  and  unified.  Taylor  clung  to  the 
idea  of  establishing  a  manorial  estate  at  Kennett  Square, 
Pennsylvania,  but  lived  more  or  less  in  New  York  and  buzzed 
restlessly  about  the  literary  market  until  he  died  a  victim  of 
overwork  in  1878.  Stoddard,  more  stable  and  unexcited  than 
Taylor  or  than  Stedman,  was  occupied  in  a  succession  of  unin 
spired  literary  ventures.  Aldrich,  after  a  few  years,  returned 
to  Boston,  where  he  was  happier,  although  always  consciously 
a  newcomer.  Stedman  devoted  as  much  time  and  energy  to 
poetry  as  his  unsuccessful  efforts  to  become  independently 
rich  would  allow  him.  These  men  were  in  a  way  the  first 
American  literary  victims  to  "  Newyorkitis."  Only  Richard 
Watson  Gilder  succeeded  in  coping  with  the  great  city.  The 
others  were  not  only  unable  to  impress  their  stamp  on  the  city 
of  their  adoption  but  were  engulfed  by  it.  In  the  midst  of 
the  turmoil  they  could  not  enjoy  the  serenity  which  prevailed  in 
those  same  days  in  the  Boston  or  the  Charleston  where  cultural 
pursuits  were  held  in  higher  esteem  than  commercial  activity. 

324 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  325 

They  were  in  the  midst  of  a  different  cultural  atmosphere. 
Bryant,  Irving,  Halleck,  and  Greeley  led  the  way  for  a  succeed 
ing  group  of  self-educated  men.  The  New  England  writers 
of  the  day  had  been  schooled  at  Harvard  and  Bowdoin  and 
certain  German  universities,  and  the  cultured  men  of  Charles 
ton  were  going  abroad  for  study  and  travel  in  increasing  num 
bers.  In  the  midst  of  all  the  hurly-burly  of  New  York  there 
was  no  dominant  circle  who  were  disposed  to  take  time  for 
the  leisurely  contemplation  of  the  finer  things  in  art  and  life, 
and  the  art  and  life  of  New  York  suffered  in  consequence. 
In  spite  of  all  that  had  been  said  for  generations  about  the 
employment  of  American  subject  matter,  these  men  turned 
away  from  either  the  romance  or  the  realities  of  the  town. 
Except  in  rare  instances  they  did  not  even  satirize  it.  Instead 
they  took  refuge  in  sentimentalism  and  in  remote  times  and 
places.  "The  Ballad  of  Babie  Bell,"  "  Ximen,  or  the  Battle 
of  the  Sierra  Morena,  and  Other  Poems,"  "  Poems  of  the 
Orient,"  "  The  Blameless  Prince,"  "  Poems  Lyric  and  Idyllic," 
"Konigsmark,  and  Other  Poems,"  "The  King's  Bell,"  and 
"  The  Book  of  the  East "  were  the  natural  output  of  such  a 
group.  Moreover,  the  plays  were  of  the  same  sort.  "  Tortesa 
the  Usurer,"  "  The  Merchant  of  Bogota,"  "  Francesca  da 
Rimini,"  and  "  Leonora,  or  the  World's  Own "  represented 
the  majority.  "  Fashion  "  and  "  Rip  Van  Winkle  "  were  quite 
the  exceptions. 

Of  his  generation  Stoddard  was  perhaps  more  devoted  than 
any  other  in  his  worship  of  a  fanciful  and  unvitalized  Muse. 
The  criticisms  of  Lowell  and  Holmes  served  as  correctives 
for  the  artificialities  of  Stedman  and  Aldrich,  but  Stoddard 
made  no  poetic  response  either  to  the  Civil  War  or  to  the 
march  of  science  or  to  the  religious  changes  that  attended  it. 
To  the  end  of  his  career  he  was  the  complete  product  of  the 
influences  surrounding  his  youth.  He  had  been  brought  to 
New  York  at  the  age  of  ten  by  his  widowed  mother  and  kept 


326        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

in  school  only  until  he  was  fifteen.  For  nine  years  he- worked 
as  an  artisan,  cultivating  literature  and  literary  people  in  his 
leisure  hours.  From  1853  to  1870  he  held  a  post  in  the 
New  York  Customhouse,  and  from  1860  on,  literary  editor 
ships  with  the  New  York  World,  the  Aldine  and  the  New 
York  Mail  and  Express. 

Stoddard's  poetry  is  altogether  detached  from  this  life,  ignor 
ing  or  avoiding  the  facts  of  daily  existence ;  and  even  in  the 
little  lyrics  of  pleasure  there  is  the  lovely  detachment  of  the 
orchid.  Though  now  and  again  they  show  signs  of  becoming 
mildly  erotic,  they  have  no  passion  in  them.  Rather  they 
exhibit  the  chaste  delights  of  the  virtuoso,  who  takes  up  one 
object  after  another  from  the  glass-covered  cabinets  in  the 
museum  which  his  fancy  has  furnished,  looks  it  over  fondly, 
admires  its  form  and  color,  and  sets  it  back  with  even  pulse 
until  such  time  as  he  shall  choose  to  gaze  on  it  again.  These 
lyrics  are  sometimes  nature  descriptions  and  sometimes  nature 
fantasies.  Often  they  are  about  the  idea  of  love  —  rather  than 
about  love  itself  —  and  about  wine  —  but  not  about  conviviality. 
In  the  philosophical  ones  there  is  a  negative  tone,  as  in 

Man  loses  but  the  life  he  lives 

And  only  lives  the  life  he  loses. 
or  in 

There  is  no  life  on  land  or  sea 

Save  in  the  quiet  moon  and  me ; 
Nor  ours  is  true,  but  only  seems 
Within  some  dead  old  World  of  Dreams. 

And  this  dream  world  was  an  abandoned  unreality  and  not 
a  hope  for  something  better. 

Taken  at  its  best,  his  verse  is  chiefly  excellent  for  its  form. 
As  it  does  not  spring  from  any  vivid  experiencing  of  life,  it 
is  conventional  and  reminiscent  rather  than  spontaneous  and 
original.  It  suggests  many  measures  from  many  periods.  In 
only  a  few  poems,  which  purport  to  be  themselves  imitations 
from  the  East,  he  writes  what  seems  fresh  and  new.  His  real 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  327 

gift  was  in  the   composition  of  little  poetic   cameos,   bits   of 
from  four  to  a  dozen  lines,  the  dainty  ornaments  of  literature. 

The  career  of  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  was  closely  interwoven 
with  the  whole  fabric  of  professional  authorship  in  America. 
Like  Bryant  and  Willis  before  him,  and  like  Stedman,  Stod- 
dard,  and  Winter  of  his  own  generation,  he  established  himself 
in  New  York,  although  he  was  a  New  England  boy ;  but 
unlike  all  the  others  he  fulfilled  his  career  in  Boston.  It  was 
an  accident  of  dollars  and  cents  that  kept  him  out  of  Harvard 
and  put  him  into  a  New  York  office.  A  love  of  literature  led 
him  then  successively  into  the  adventurous  byways  of  Bohe 
mian  New  York,  the  secure  dignity  of  magazine  editorship  in 
Boston,  and  the  fair  prospects  of  independent  literary  success 
as  enjoyed  on  Beacon  Hill. 

To  be  explicit,  he  was  born  in  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire, 
in  1836.  His  father's  pursuit  of  fortune  took  Aldrich  as  a 
child  to  many  parts  of  the  country,  but  brought  him  back  to 
Portsmouth  at  the  age  of  thirteen.  For  the  next  three  years 
he  lived  there  the  life  which  provided  the  basic  facts  for 
"  The  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy."  Lack  of  funds  prevented  his 
entering  Harvard,  and  in  1852  he  undertook  a  clerkship  in 
the  office  of  a  New  York  uncle.  In  1855,  when  he  was  still 
only  nineteen,  he  published  his  first  volume  of  poetry  and 
became  junior  literary  critic  on  the  Evening  Mirror.  In  the 
next  several  years  he  held  a  sub-editorship  in  New  York  on 
the  Home  Journal  and  the  Saturday  Press  and  literary 
adviserships  to  several  minor  publishing  houses,  capping  off 
with  the  editorship  of  the  Illustrated  News,  which  had 
become  a  thing  of  the  past  when,  in  1866,  he  was  called  to 
Boston  to  become  editor  of  Every  Saturday.  This  post  he 
held  for  nine  years.  For  the  six  years  up  to  1881  he  was  an 
abundant  contributor  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly  and  for  the 
next  nine,  1881-1890,  he  was  the  editor.  During  the  remain 
der  of  his  life  he  held  no  literary  position. 


328        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

During  his  fifteen  years  in  New  York,  Greeley  and  Bryant, 
two  newspaper  editors,  were  perhaps  the  dominant  figures  in 
the  literary  and  intellectual  stratum,  Willis  and  Halleck  the 
most  popular,  Henry  Clapp,  Jr.,  and  Charles  T.  Congdon  the 
cleverest,  and  "  Bohemia,"  with  its  rallying  point  at  Pfaff's 
restaurant,  the  visible  rallying  place  for  the  authors.1  Aldrich 
gravitated  toward  this  group,  but  never  really  belonged  to  it. 
Just  why  he  did  not  can  be  inferred  from  a  sentence  by 
Howells,  whose  nature  was  very  like  his  own :  "  I  remember 
that,  as  I  sat  at  that  table,  under  the  pavement,  in  Pfaff's  beer- 
cellar,  and  listened  to  the  wit  that  did  not  seem  very  funny,  I 
thought  of  the  dinner  with  Lowell,  the  breakfast  with  Fields,  the 
supper  at  the  Autocrat's,  and  felt  that  I  had  fallen  very  far."  2 

The  men  who  gathered  at  Pfaff's  were  very  conscious  of 
Boston,  though  their  consciousness  came  out  in  various  ways. 
The  most  violent  said  that  the  thought  of  it  made  them  as 
ugly  as  sin  ;  others  loved  it  though  they  left  it,  as  Whitman  did 
"the  open  road  "  ;  and  some,  on  the  outskirts  of  "  Bohemia," 
were  not  too  aggressively  like  Stedman,  who  admitted  much 
later,  "  I  was  very  anxious  to  bring  out  my  first  book  in  New 
York  in  Boston  style,  having  a  reverence  for  Boston,  which  I 
continued  to  have."  Aldrich  was  of  like  mind,  and  readily  ac 
cepted  Osgood's  invitation  to  "  the  Hub  "  and  to  the  editorship 
of  Every  Saturday.  Years  after  he  wrote  to  Bayard  Taylor, 
who  could  understand :  "  I  miss  my  few  dear  friends  in  New 
York  —  but  that  is  all.  There  is  a  finer  intellectual  atmosphere 
here  than  in  our  city.  .  .  .  The  people  of  Boston  are  full-blooded 

1  For  varying  sentiments  about  "  Bohemia  "  see  the  following  passages : 
Ferris  Greenslet,  "  Life  of  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,"  pp.  37-47  ;  W.  D.  Howells, 
w  Literary  Friends  and  Acquaintances,"  pp.  68-76 ;  Stedman  and  Gould,  "  Life 
of  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,"  pp.  208,  209 ;  William  Winter,  "  Old  Friends," 
pp.  291-297. 

3  In  reply  to  this  and  like  passages  William  Winter  wrote :  "  No  literary 
circle  comparable  with  the  Bohemian  group  of  that  period,  in  ardor  of  genius, 
variety  of  character,  and  singularity  of  achievement,  has  since  existed  in  New 
York,  nor  has  any  group  of  writers  anywhere  existent  in  our  country  been  so 
ignorantly  and  grossly  misrepresented  and  maligned  "  (w  Old  Friends,"  p.  138). 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  329 

readers,  appreciative,  trained."  And  later,  to  Stedman  :  "  In 
the  six  years  I  have  been  htre,  I  have  found  seven  or  eight 
hearts  so  full  of  noble  things  that  there  is  no  room  in  them  for 
such  trifles  as  envy  and  conceit  and  insincerity.  I  didn't  find 
more  than  two  or  three  such  in  New  York,  and  I  lived  there 
fifteen  years.  It  was  an  excellent  school  for  me  —  to  get  out 
of !  "  Boston  was  his  native  heath,  in  spite  of  his  own  saying : 
"  Though  I  am  not  genuine  Boston,  I  am  Boston-plated." 

Aldrich's  literary  career  began  and  ended  with  the  writing 
of  poetry,  but  what  he  did  in  the  interims  of  poetical  silence 
contributed  to  the  peculiar  character  of  his  work  even  though 
it  was  a  source  of  distraction  and  sometimes  of  prolonged 
interruption.  As  a  reader  and  editor  he  was  schooled  from 
very  young  manhood  in  the  exercise  of  a  peculiarly  fine  artistic 
taste,  a  taste  so  exacting  in  detail  that  the  Atlantic  under  his 
direction  was  described  by  a  foreign  critic  as  "  the  best  edited 
magazine  in  the  English  language."  He  did  not  reserve  the 
exercise  of  this  rectitude  of  judgment  for  the  work  of  others, 
but  applied  it  with  perhaps  increased  austerity  to  himself.  His 
verse  will  consequently  endure  close  examination,  and  the  later 
collections  will  show  the  virtues  and  defects  of  scrupulous 
rejection  and  of  the  revision  in  each  succeeding  publication 
of  the  work  which  he  chose  to  preserve. 

The  virtues  of  work  so  carefully  perfected  are  evident.  His 
effects  are,  in  the  end,  all  calculated,  for  he  gave  no  quarter 
to  what  he  had  produced  with  zest  if  it  did  not  ring  true  to 
his  critical  ear.  His  poetic  machinery  is  therefore  well  oiled 
and  articulated.  His  metaphors  are  sound  and  his  diction 
happily  adjusted.  "  The  vanilla-flavored  adjectives  and  the 
patchouli-scented  participles  "  criticized  by  his  kindly  senior, 
Dr.  Holmes,  are  pared  away.  So  in  the  little  steel  engravings 
that  are  the  best  expressions  of  his  peculiar  talent  there  is 
a  fine  simplicity,  but  it  is  the  simplicity  of  an  accomplished 
woman  of  the  world  rather  than  of  a  village  maid.  And  herein 
lie  the  shortcomings  of  Aldrich's  poetry  —  that  it  is  the  poetry 


330        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  accomplishment.  As  a  youth  in  New  York,  writing  while 
Halleck's  popularity  was  at  its  height,  he  was  not  independent 
enough  to  be  more  original  than  his  most  admired  townsman. 
The  verses  in  "The  Bells:  a  Collection  of  Chimes"  are 
most  of  them  clearly  imitative ;  and  from  the  day  of  "  Babie 
Bell "  on,  whatever  of  originality  was  Aldrich's  belonged  to 
the  library  and  the  drawing-room  and  the  literary  club  rather 
than  to  the  seas,  woods,  and  mountains. 

It  is  logical,  then,  that  his  longer  narrative  poems  have 
least  of  his  own  stamp  in  them.  From  a  literary  point  of  view 
they  are  well  enough,  but  they  are  literary  grass  of  the  field 
and  have  no  more  claim  on  the  primary  attention  of  a  modern 
reader  than  do  the  bulk  of  prose  short  stories  written  in  the 
same  years  by  Aldrich  and  his  fellows.  The  only  one  that 
stands  out  is  "  Pauline  Pavlovna,"  and  that  because  it  has  the 
dramatic  vigor  and  the  startling  unexpectedness  of  conclusion 
which  mark  the  best  of  his  prose  tales.  It  is  logical,  too,  that 
in  his  more  ambitious  odes  —  such  as  "Spring  in  New  Eng 
land  "  and  the  "  Shaw  Memorial  Ode,"  which  open  and  close 
the  second  volume  of  his  poems  —  he  did  not  appear  to  the 
best  advantage.  Memorials  of  the  Civil  War  are  adequate  only 
if  written  with  epic  vision,  but  the  best  that  Aldrich  did  with 
such  material  was  to  make  it  the  ground  for  heartfelt  tributes 
to  the  nobility  of  his  fallen  friends.  Read  Moody 's  "  Ode  in 
Time  of  Hesitation  "  beside  Aldrich's  slender  lyric  based  on 
the  same  man  and  the  same  memorial,  and  the  difference 
is  self-evident.  Aldrich's  biographer  has  commented  on  the 
rarity  of  his  aesthetic  sense,  "  among  modern  poets  with  their 
preoccupations,  philosophical,  religious  and  political."  In  this 
not  unjust  criticism  of  Aldrich  —  which  marks  a  distinction 
rather  than  a  superiority  —  lies  the  reason  why  he  should  have 
left  the  writing  of  national  odes  to  poets  who  were  sometimes 
capable  of  such  preoccupation. 

In  writing  on  personal  and  local  and  occasional  themes 
Aldrich  dealt  with  more  congenial  material.  When  celebrating 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  331 

his  fellow-authors  and  the  places  he  loved  he  could  invoke 
beauty  with  an  unpreoccupied  mind ;  and  he  did  so  with 
unvarying  success,  addressing  the  choicest  of  the  limited 
public  in  which  he  was  really  interested.  The  kind  of  folk 
he  cared  for  "  Drank  deep  of  life,  new  books  and  hearts  of 
men,"  like  Henry  Howard  Brownell.  As  a  youth  he  wrote 
delightedly  of  a  certain  month  when  he  could  see  "her" 
every  day  and  browse  in  a  library  of  ten  thousand  volumes. 
He  was  a  literary  poet  for  literary  people.  As  such  he  was 
most  successful  in  poems  which  ranged  in  length  from  the 
sonnet  to  the  quatrain.  In  the  tiny  bits  like  "  Destiny," 
"  Heredity,"  "  Identity,"  "  Memory,"  "  I  '11  not  confer  with 
Sorrow,"  "  Pillared  Arch  and  Sculptured  Tower,"  he  achieved 
works  as  real  as  Benvenuto's  jewel  settings.  It  was  a  fulfill 
ment  of  the  wish  recorded  in  his  "  Lyrics  and  Epics  "  : 

I  would  be  the  lyric 
Ever  on  the  lip, 
Rather  than  the  epic 
Memory  lets  slip. 
I  would  be  the  diamond 
At  my  lady's  ear 
Rather  than  a  June  rose 
Worn  but  once  a  year. 

No  more  charming  tribute  was  ever  paid  Aldrich  than  this 
of  Whittier's  narrated  by  a  friend  who  had  been  visiting  for  a 
week  with  the  poet  in  his  old  age :  "  Every  evening  he  asked 
me  to  repeat  to  him  certain  short  poems,  often  "  Destiny," 
and  once  even  'that  audacious  "Identity,"'  as  he  called  it; 
but  at  the  end  he  invariably  said,  *  Now  thee  knows  without 
my  saying  so  that  I  want  "  Memory,"  '  and  with  his  wonder 
ful  far-off  gaze  he  always  repeated  after  me :  '  Two  petals 
from  that  wild-rose  tree.'  " 

In  his  address  at  a  meeting  held  in  memory  of  Edmund 
Clarence  Stedman  in  January,  1909,  Hamilton  Mabie  struck  the 


332        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

main  note  in  two  complementary  statements :  "  Mr.  Stedman 
belongs  with  those  who  have  not  only  enriched  literature  with 
works  of  quality  and  substance,  but  who  have  represented  it  in 
its  public  relationships,"  and,  "  Stedman  was  by  instinct  and 
temperament  a  man  of  the  town."  He  elected  to  live  in  Man 
hattan  just  as  deliberately  as  Aldrich  elected  to  live  in  Boston ; 
and  in  this  distinction  lies  something  much  broader  than  the 
mere  difference  between  the  two  men. 

Stedman  was  born  in  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  1833.  After 
the  death  of  his  father  and  the  remarriage  of  his  mother,  he 
was  brought  up  from  1839  to  1850  under  charge  of  an  uncle. 
A  member  of  the  class  of  1853  at  Yale,  he  was  "rusticated" 
(see  p.  282)  and  then  expelled  for  persistent  misbehavior. 
Until  1863  he  was  in  journalism,  as  petty  proprietor  in  two 
Connecticut  towns,  and  later  as  member  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  staff,  ending  with  two  years  as  war  correspondent.  In 
1863  he  went  into  Wall  Street,  and  in  1869  became  a  member 
of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange.  From  this  date  to  the  end 
of  his  life  in  1908  he  knew  little  real  repose,  oscillating  from 
over-exertion  in  business  to  over-exertion  in  writing,  with  occa 
sional  enforced  vacations.  His  work  as  poet  was  inseparable 
from  his  labors  as  editor  and  critic.  In  this  field  he  wrote 
"  Victorian  Poets,"  1875,  "  Poets  of  America,"  1885,  and  "  The 
Nature  and  Elements  of  Poetry,"  1892 ;  and  edited  the 
"  Library  of  American  Literature "  (with  Ellen  Hutchinson) 
1888-1889,  "A  Victorian  Anthology,"  1895,  and  "An  Amer 
ican  Anthology,"  1900. 

Stedman  took  the  consequences  of  settling  in  the  commercial 
capital  of  the  United  States.  While  the  members  of  the  Satur 
day  Club  were  lending  distinction  to  Boston,  the  members  of 
the  Ornithorhyncus  Club  and  the  Bohemians  were  receiving  the 
impress  of  New  York.  Men  came  to  the  Saturday  luncheons 
from  Salem  and  Haverhill,  Concord,  and  Cambridge  as  well  as 
near-by  Brookline  and  Boston  itself,  but  the  New  York  groups 
congregated  into  literary  neighborhoods  in  the  "  Unitary  Home  " 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  333 

or  "on  the  south  side  of  Tenth  Street."  Thus  it  came  about 
that  Aldrich  contributed  to  Boston  what  he  brought  there,  but 
that  Stedman  was  "  made  in  New  York."  As  a  result  Aldrich 
was  more  frankly  absorbed  in  the  concerns  of  the  enlightened 
reader,  and  Stedman  relatively  more  interested  in  a  broader 
society.  Both  were  war  correspondents,  but  Aldrich  admitted 
the  war  into  his  poetry  only  rarely,  and  then  without  much 
success.  On  the  other  hand,  the  first  eighth  of  Stedman 's  col 
lected  poems  are  entitled  "  In  War  Time,"  and  with  the  poems 
of  Manhattan,  of  New  England,  and  of  special  occasions  amount 
to  nearly  one  half  the  volume.  Moreover,  of  the  poems  by 
Stedman  which  are  generally  known  and  quoted,  quite  the 
larger  portion  are  included  in  utterances  which  are  representative 
of  literature  "  in  its  public  relationships." 

A  timely  admonition  from  Lowell,  as  valuable  as  the  one 
from  Holmes  to  Aldrich,  helped  keep  him  out  of  the  byways 
in  which  he  was  inclined  to  stray.  In  1866  Stedman  was 
proud  of  his  "  Alectryon,"  a  blank- verse  poem  on  a  classic 
theme  which  had  appeared  in  one  of  his  books  three  years  before. 

When  Mr.  Lowell  praised  the  volume  in  The  North  American  Review 
I  was  chagrined  that  he  did  not  allude  to  my  piece  de  resistance,  and 
finally  hinted  as  much  to  him.  He  at  once  said  that  it  was  my  "  best 
piece  of  work,"  but  "  no  addition  to  poetic  literature,"  since  we  already 
have  enough  masterpieces  of  that  kind — from  Landor's  "  Hamadryad  " 
and  Tennyson's  "  (Enone  "  down  to  the  latest  effort  by  Swinburne  or 
Mr.  Fields.  So  I  have  never  written  since  upon  an  antique  theme. 
Upon  reflection,  I  thought  Lowell  right.  A  new  land  calls  for  new  song. 

The  best  of  Stedman 's  nature  poems  are  directly  drawn  from 
boyhood  reminiscence  or  from  a  voyage  and  vacation  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  many  of  his  songs  and  ballads  are  derived 
from  contemporary  backgrounds  and  episodes. 

Stedman  did  his  work  as  a  poet,  however,  in  full  conscious 
ness  of  all  the  wealth  of  continental  literature  and  the  splendors 
of  Old  World  tradition.  Perhaps  there  was  no  single  work  into 
which  he  put  more  ambition  than  into  his  uncompleted  metrical 


334        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

version  from  the  Greek  of  the  Sicilian  Idyllists.  His  "  Vic 
torian  Poets  "  and  the  anthology  which  followed  were  undertaken 
by  way  of  making  a  workmanlike  approach  to  the  poetry  of  his 
own  countrymen.  As  a  reader  he  had  the  scholar's  attitude 
toward  literature ;  as  a  poet  he  felt  a  respect  approaching  rev 
erence  for  the  established  traditions  of  his  art.  And  yet  —  and 
in  this  respect  Stedman  is  lamentably  rare  among  critics  and 
artists  —  his  conviction  that  the  centuries  had  achieved  perma 
nent  canons  for  the  poetic  art  did  not  lead  him  into  slashing 
abuse  of  those  who  dissented  from  his  views.  He  wrote  no 
single  essay  which  better  demonstrated  his  wisdom,  his  sanity, 
and  his  charming  suavity  of  mind  and  manner  than  his  dis 
cussion  of  Walt  Whitman.  Although  he  felt  a  native  distaste 
for  much  of  Whitman's  writing  and  for  the  way  most  of  it 
was  done,  he  succeeded  in  applying  a  fair  mode  of  criticism, 
and  he  did  it  in  the  manner  of  an  artist  and  not  as  a  counsel 
for  the  plaintiff.  Instead  of  beginning  with  cleverness  and  end 
ing  with  truculence  Stedman  did  himself  the  honor  of  coming 
out  magnanimously  with  "  .  .  .  there  is  something  of  the  Greek 
in  Whitman,  and  his  lovers  call  him  Homeric,  but  to  me  he 
shall  be  our  old  American  Hesiod,  teaching  us  works  and  days." 
The  measure  of  Stedman 's  poetry  should  therefore  be  made  in 
the  light  of  two  characteristics :  his  instinctive  and  tempera 
mental  love  of  the  town,  as  this  determined  his  choice  of  subject 
matter,  and  his  widely  read  appreciation  of  the  older  poets,  as 
this  affected  his  sense  of  artistic  form.  , 

Although  some  of  it  was  very  popular  at  the  moment  and  not 
altogether  negligible  to-day,  his  less  important  work  was  the 
succession  of  verses  which  were  written  in  the  spirit  and,  in 
some  cases,  at  the  speed  of  the  journalist.  "  The  Diamond 
Wedding,"  for  example,  was  done  in  an  evening  and  was  the 
talk  of  the  town  thirty-six  hours  later.  But,  more  than  that,  it 
was  actually  good  satire,  —  as  good  a  piece  of  its  kind  as  had 
appeared  in  New  York  since  Halleck's  "  Fanny."  So,  too, 
"  Israel  Freyer's  Bid  for  Gold  "  was  published  three  days  after 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  335 

the  idea  had  first  occurred  to  him.  These,  like  the  "  Ballad  of 
Lager  Bier"  and  "The  Prince's  Ball"  and  even  "How  Old 
Brown  Took  Harper's  Ferry  "  represented  the  high  spirit  of 
youth  rollicking  on  paper  in  the  fashion  of  the  young  authors 
of  the  "  Salmagundi  "  and  "  Croaker  "  satires. 

"  Bohemia  "  and  "  Pan  in  Wall  Street,"  though  composed  in 
this  same  general  period,  are  far  more  sober,  deliberate,  and 
genuinely  poetical.  In  both  Stedman  dealt  with  the  romantic 
rather  than  with  the  ridiculous  or  contemptible  in  city  life. 
From  the  years  of  his  work  on  "  The  Victorian  Poets  "  to  the 
end  two  developments  took  place.  He  inclined  more  to  refine 
on  the  form  of  his  poems,  giving  over  at  last  all  fluent  satire, 
and  he  progressed  in  subject  matter,  first  to  what  literature  and 
the  past  suggested  and  then,  with  advancing  years,  to  consider 
ations  of  age  and  death.  The  changes  are  not  abrupt,  but  they 
are  pervasive  and  evident. 

During  the  last  dozen  years  of  his  life  poetry  could  not  be 
his  natural  form  of  expression,  for  the  world  was  too  much  with 
him.  A  great  deal  of  the  time  when  he  was  not  getting  or 
losing  on  Change  (he  seems  to  have  lost  rather  more  than  he 
spent)  he  devoted  to  service  on  all  sorts  of  boards  and  councils 
of  good  works,  speaking  and  versifying  for  special  occasions, 
editing  miscellaneously,  —  even  a  "Pocket  Guide  to  Europe," 
— -  and  giving  advice  and  encouragement  to  younger  poets.  He 
was  admirably  representing  literature  in  its  public  relationships 
and  paying  the  price  which  is  always  exacted  of  an  ambassador 
of  any  sort  in  the  complete  sacrifice  of  independent  leisure. 
There  is  something  pathetic  in  his  oft-repeated  protests  in  these 
latter  years  at  being  called  a  "  banker-poet "  or  "  broker-poet," 
for  he  had  failed  to  become  rich  as  he  had  hoped,  and  he  had 
enjoyed  on  the  whole  less  security  than  many  of  his  acquaint 
ances  who  had  attached  themselves  to  literature  in  some  pro 
fessional  way.  This,  however,  had  been  a  mistake  not  so  much  of 
judgment  as  of  temperament.  Unless  his  voluminous  biography 
utterly  misrepresents  him  he  had  no  true  capacity  for  leisure. 


336       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

He  was  an  intellectual  flagellant ;  and  his  poetry,  although  he 
was  in  theory  devoted  to  it,  was  in  reality  a  proof  of  the  love 
of  art  which  continually  tantalized  and  distracted  him  but  never 
won  his  complete  allegiance. 

Richard  Watson  Gilder  was  born  in  Bordentown,  New  Jersey, 
in  1844.  He  studied  there  in  Bellevue  Seminary,  founded  by 
his  father,  intending  to  practice  law.  He  was  in  brief  active 
service  during  the  war  when  Pennsylvania  was  invaded.  On 
his  father's  death  he  entered  journalistic  work,  first  with  two 
Newark  newspapers  and  then  with  Hours  at  Home  in  New 
York.  From  its  founding  in  1870  he  was  associate  editor  of 
the  old  Scribners  Monthly  (since  1881  The  Century)  and  from 
1 88 1  was  its  editor  in  chief.  He  became  increasingly  important 
in  New  York  as  contributor  to  civic  welfare,  and  at  the  same 
,  time  held  his  own  as  editor  and  poet.  Thus  he  was  first  presi 
dent  of  the  Kindergarten  Association  of  New  York  and  a 
founder  of  the  Authors'  Club.  He  was  identified  with  the  lead 
ing  agencies  for  cultural  and  humanitarian  ends,  was  in  demand 
as  laureate  on  special  occasions,  and  was  recipient  of  many 
honorary  degrees. 

Gilder  was  almost  exclusively  a  lyric  poet.  His  units  are  very 
brief,  —  there  are  more  than  five  hundred  in  the  one-volume 
"Complete"  edition,  —  very  few  extending  to  the  one  hun 
dred  lines  ordained  by  Poe.  Even  among  lyrics,  moreover,  he 
set  distinct  boundaries  to  his  field.  Among  his  metropolitan 
fellows  —  Taylor,  Stoddard,  Aldrich,  Stedman,  and  the  others 
—  he  was  notable  in  not  writing  imitative  and  reminiscent 
poetry.  These  men  must  have  been  rather  definitely  in  the 
back  of  his  mind  when  he  wrote : 

Some  from  books  resound  their  rhymes  — 

Set  them  ringing  with  a  faint, 

Sorrowful,  and  sweet,  and  quaint 
Memory  of  the  olden  times, 
Like  the  sound  of  evening  chimes. 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  337 

And  too  many  of  his  contemporaries  did  not  follow  as  well  as 
he  the  admonition, 

Tell  to  the  wind 
Thy  private  woes,  but  not  to  human  ear. 

There  was  still  a  world  of  beauty  left  for  him,  first  of  all  in 
songs  of  love.  It  is  a  chaste  and  disembodied  passion  that  he 
celebrated  in  frequent  groups  of  song.  The  lady  is  a  delight 
to  the  eye,  modest,  timid,  and  yet  all-generous ;  the  lover 
eager,  gentle,  adoring,  and  inspired  to  nobility.  What  Gilder 
recorded  in  one  of  the  earliest  of  these  lyrics  seems  in  large 
measure  to  hold  true  of  them  all.  After  an  enumeration  of 
the  lady's  charms  and  the  charm  she  bestowed  upon  earth 
and  sky,  he  continued  : 

I  love  her  doubting  and  anguish ; 

I  love  the  love  she  withholds ; 
I  love  my  love  that  loveth  her 

And  anew  her  being  molds. 

A  poet  of  so  rarefied  a  sentiment  as  this  hangs  on  the  brink 
of  sentimentalism,  but  Gilder  seldom  fell  over,  for  his  nicety 
of  feeling  could  not  easily  be  led  into  mawkishness. 

His  regard  for  nature  was  refined  and  sophisticated.  One 
passes  from  the  exquisite  "  Dawn  "  with  which  his  first  volume 
opened,  past  "  Thistle-Down  "  and  "  The  Violet  "  to  the  poems 
of  Tyringham,  his  summer  home  ;  and  then  to  "  Home  Acres" 
and  "  The  Old  Place,"  which  had  no  rival ;  and  ends  "  In 
Helena's  Garden  "  between  "  The  Marble  Pool  "  and  "  The 
Sundial,"  to  drink  tea  with  eleven  pretty  girls  at  a  round  table 
made  from  a  granite  millstone.  The  sun  shines  brightly,  the 
flowers  are  in  bloom,  their  odor  mingling  with  that  of  the 
souchong,  the  conversation  is  facile,  and  everybody  is  amiable 
and  complacent.  From  such  a  catalogue  one  might  expect 
sappy  and  emasculated  nature  poems,  but  once  again  Gilder's 
sanity  rescues  him.  Even  in  Helena's  garden  he  is  rather  a 
strong  man  at  ease  than  a  sybarite. 


338        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

In  his  enjoyment  of  the  allied  arts  his  taste  was  generous. 
Music  appealed  to  him  most  of  all.  He  chanted  the  praises 
of  Handel  and  Chopin,  Rubinstein  and  Tschaikowsky,  but  of 
Beethoven  still  more,  and  of  Wagner  most  of  all.  He  told  of  the 
thrill  he  caught  from  the  various  instruments,  but  of  the  deeper 
thrill  from  the  singer  and  from  the  chorus.  The  art  of 
"  Madame  Butterfly  "  appealed  to  him,  but  not  so  deeply  as 
the  power  of  the  drama,  even  if  played  "  In  a  little  theater, 
in  the  Jewry  of  the  New  World."  Naturally  he  wrote  much 
of  his  own  art,  revealing  his  high  seriousness  in  his  poems 
about  the  poet.  Poetry  was  not  solely  the  record  or  the  evi 
dence  of  beauty  for  him.  Although  his  only  markedly  personal 
allegiance  in  poetry  was  an  allegiance  to  Keats,  it  was  a  fealty 
to  Keats  taken  off  before  his  prime.  Gilder  lamented  the 
wrong  fate  had  done  the  youthful  genius  and  did  not  content 
himself  with  reiterating  that  "  a  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  forever." 

For  Gilder  never,  even  in  his  most  ecstatic  moods,  indulged 
in  the  fallacy  of  setting  art  above  life.  Though  his  work  does 
not  show  the  marked  changes  which  have  developed  in  many 
evolving  careers,  there  is  a  clear  emergence  of  philosophic 
and  then  social  and  civic  interest  in  his  progressive  volumes. 
His  sense  for  the  need  of  a  brave  integrity  comes  to  the  sur 
face  in  such  poems  as  "  Reform,"  "The  Prisoner's  Thought," 
"The  Heroic  Age,"  "The  Demagogue,"  "The  Tool,"  "The 
New  Politician,"  "The  Whisperers,"  and  "In  Times  of 
Peace."  To  such  themes  as  these  and  to  his  poems  of  hero 
ism  and  of  the  reunited  country  Gilder  brought  the  same 
delicacy  of  touch  as  to  his  poems  of  love  and  art  and  nature, 
and  he  brought  into  view  in  them  the  latent  vigor  which 
saved  the  others  from  being  merely  pink  and  mellifluous. 

In  poetry  written  on  the  scale  of  Gilder's  there  is  need  of 
finest  workmanship.  There  is  no  chance  for  Turneresque 
effects  : 

The  foreground  golden  dirt, 
The  sunshine  painted  with  a  squirt. 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  339 

These  paintings  are  like  miniatures  which  must  submit  to 
scrutiny  under  the  reading  glass.  In  this  connection  his  crafts 
manship  becomes  interesting  in  the  history  of  versification. 
For  Gilder  was  at  once  a  master  of  the  more  complex  forms 
of  traditional  verse  and  an  early  experimenter  in  the  free, 
rhythmic  forms  which  are  the  subject  of  spirited  controversy 
to-day.  Some  rhythmic  prose  appears  in  his  earliest  volume, 
but  the  sonnet  prevails  at  the  beginning  of  his  authorship,  and 
at  the  end  it  almost  utterly  disappears  in  favor  of  the  freest  sort 
of  blank  verse,  irregular  and  unrimed  iambic  measures,  poems 
which  are  suggestive  of  but  distinct  from  Whitman's,  and  frank 
prose-poetry,  not  even  "  shredded  prose  "  — in  the  language  of 
Mr.  Howells  —  but  printed  in  solid  paragraphs.  Except  for  the 
sonnet,  Gilder  had  no  favorite  measure  or  stanza  in  his  earlier 
volumes.  Few  poems  are  in  exactly  similar  measures.  There 
are  lines  of  from  three  to  seven  feet,  quatrains  of  various  sorts, 
and  rhythms  from  that  of  the  heroic  couplet  to  that  of  the 
so-called  Pindaric  ode.  But  whatever  the  measure  he  adopted, 
he  was  scrupulously  consistent  to  it,  though  he  employed  it 
easily,  seldom  conceding  an  awkward  or  prosaic  locution  to 
the  exigencies  of  lilt  or  rime.  So  he  seems  to  have  been 
equally  at  home  in  the  use  of  sundry  forms  —  in  the  antiph- 
onal  ballad  like  "The  Voyager,"  within  the  pale  of  "The 
Sonnet,"  in  the  anapaestic  flow  of  "A  Song  of  Early  Autumn," 
in  the  swift-moving  iambics  of  "A  Woman's  Thought,"  with  its 
intricate  double  and  triple  rimes,  or  in  the  psalmlike  sibilations 
of  "  The  Whisperers." 

The  philosophy  of  Gilder  was  the  philosophy  of  his  most  en 
lightened  contemporaries.  There  is  in  it  much  of  Emerson, 
whom  he  called  the  "shining  soul"  of  the  New  World,  and 
there  is  much  of  Whitman,  though  it  is  not  clear  whether  their 
likeness  does  not  lie  in  their  common  accord  with  Emerson 
rather  than  in  a  direct  influence  from  "  the  good  gray  poet " 
to  Gilder.  The  immanence  of  God  in  nature  and  in  the  heart 
of  man  (see  "  The  Voice  of  the  Pine  ") ;  the  unity  of  all  natural 


340        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

law  (see  "  Destiny  ")  ;  the  conflict  between  religion  and  theology 
(see  "  Credo  ")  ;  and  a  faith  in  the  essentials  of  democratic  life, 
—  these  are  the  wholesome  fundamentals  of  modern  thinking 
shared  alike  by  Emerson  and  Whitman  and  Gilder.  Gilder  is 
not  their  most  impressive  or  prophetic  expositor.  He  is  a  lesser 
voice  in  the  choir.  The  point  of  real  distinction  for  him  is 
that  he  combined  so  finely  the  discriminating  work  of  a  literary 
editor  with  the  unwearying  life  of  a  good  and  courageous 
citizen  and  still  kept  the  current  of  his  song  serene  and  clear. 

BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Authors 

RICHARD  HENRY  STODDARD.  Works.  Complete  Poems,  i  vol.  His 
verse  appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows  :  Footprints,  1 849 ; 
Poems,  1852;  Songs  of  Summer,  1857;  The  King's  Bell,  1862; 
Abraham  Lincoln :  an  Horatian  Ode,  1 865  ;  The  Book  of  the  East, 
and  Other  Poems,  1871 ;  The  Lion's  Cub,  with  Other  Verse,  1890. 

Collections 

BOYNTON,  PERCY  H.   American  Poetry,  pp.  542-554,  680-684. 
STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 

VIII,  pp.  226-238. 

Biography 

Recollections  Personal  and  Literary,  by  Richard  Henry  Stoddard. 
Ripley  Hitchcock,  editor.    1903. 

THOMAS  BAILEY  ALDRICH.  Works.  The  Writings  of,  in  9  vols.  1907. 
(Vols.  I-II,  Poetry;  Vols.  III-IX,  Prose.)  The  best  single  volume 
of  the  poetry  is  Poems.  1906.  His  works  appeared  in  book  form 
originally  as  follows:  The  Bells,  1855;  The  Ballad  of  Babie  Bell, 
1856;  Daisy's  Necklace,  1857;  Pampinea  and  Other  Poems,  1861; 
Out  of  his  Head,  1862;  The  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy,  1869;  Marjorie 
Daw,  and  Other  People,  1873;  Prudence  Palfrey,  1874;  Cloth  of 
Gold,  1874;  Flower  and  Thorn,  1876;  The  Queen  of  Sheba,  1877; 
The  Stillwater  Tragedy,  1880;  From  Ponkapog  to  Pesth,  1883; 
Mercedes,  and  Later  Lyrics,  1 883 ;  Wyndham  Towers,  1 889 ;  The 
Sisters'  Tragedy,  1891 ;  Two  Bites  at  a  Cherry,  1893  ;  An  Old  Town 
by  the  Sea,  r  893  ;  Unguarded  Gates,  and  Other  Poems,  1 895  ;  Later 
Lyrics,  1896;  Judith  and  Holofernes,  1896. 

Collection 

STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.    Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol. 

IX,  pp.  377-399- 


SOME  METROPOLITAN  POETS  341 

Bibliography 

A  chronological  list  of  Aldrich's  works  is  appended  to  the  Life.  See 
Biography,  below. 

Biography 

The  Life  of  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  is  by  Ferris  Greenslet.  1908.  See 
also  The  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy,  by  Aldrich  himself. 

EDMUND  CLARENCE  STEDMAN.  Works.  The  Poems  of.  1 908.  These 
appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows :  The  Prince's  Ball, 
1860;  Poems  Lyrical  and  Idyllic,  1860;  The  Battle  of  Bull  Run, 
1861 ;  Alice  of  Monmouth,  1863  ;  The  Blameless  Prince,  and  Other 
Poems,  1869;  Victorian  Poets,  1875  ;  Hawthorne  and  Other  Poems, 
1877;  Poets  of  America,  1885;  The  Nature  and  Elements  of 
Poetry,  1 892 ;  A  Victorian  Anthology,  1 895  ;  An  American  Anthol 
ogy,  1900;  Mater  Coronata,  1901. 

Bibliography 

An  excellent  chronological  list  is  contained  in  Vol.  II  of  the  Life. 
Biography 

The  Life  and  Letters  is  by  Laura  Stedman  and  George  M.  Gould. 
1910.  2  vols.  See  also  A  New  England  Childhood:  the  Story  of 
the  Boyhood  of  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman.  Margaret  Fuller.  1916. 

RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER.  Works.  The  Poems  of.  Household 
Edition.  1908.  These  appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows: 
The  New  Day,  1875;  The  Celestial  Passion,  1878;  Lyrics,  1878; 
The  Poet  and  his  Master,  and  Other  Poems,  1878;  Two  Worlds, 
and  Other  Poems,  1891;  Great  Remembrance,  and  Other  Poems, 
1893;  For  the  Country,  1897;  In  Palestine  and  Other  Poems, 
1898;  Poems  and  Inscriptions,  1901;  A  Christmas  Wreath,  1903; 
In  the  Heights,  1905  ;  A  Book  of  Music,  1906;  Fire  Divine,  1907; 
Lincoln  the  Leader,  1909;  Grover  Cleveland,  1910. 

Collection 

STEDMAN  and  HUTCHINSON.  Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  X, 
pp.  252-259. 

Biography 

Letters  of  Richard  Watson  Gilder.    Rosamond  Gilder,  editor.   1906. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  biographical  passages  cited  in  the  text  relative  to  the 
difference  of  literary  atmosphere  in  New  York  and  Boston.  Read 
W.  D.  Howells's  "A  Hazard  of  New  Fortunes  "  for  a  further  contrast 
between  the  two  cities. 


342        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Read  Stoddard's  poems  with  a  view  to  marking  definite  literary 
influences  as  shown  in  poems  which  seem  evidently  imitative. 

Read  a  group  of  the  four-line  and  eight-line  poems  of  Aldrich  and 
compare  them  in  spirit  and  execution  with  similar  bits  by  Stoddard 
and  by  Emerson. 

Read  Stedman's  critical  essays  on  one  or  two  of  the  New  England 
poets  and  on  two  or  three  of  his  fellow  New  Yorkers.  Read  his 
essay  on  Walt  Whitman.  Does  Stedman's  own  verse  confirm  the 
theory  of  his  criticisms  of  Whitman  ? 

Read  Gilder's  poems  in  the  newer  verse  forms  and  compare  them 
with  one  of  the  contemporary  poets  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter 
of  this  book. 

Is  there  a  legitimate  connection  to  be  mentioned  between  Gilder's 
poems  on  civic  themes  and  the  movement  for  better  citizenship  in 
the  1890*5?  Can  you  cite  political  events  and  characters  and  novels 
or  plays  on  political  life  which  belong  to  this  period  ? 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH 

The  non-mention  of  any  Southern  writers  for  nearly  two 
centuries  in  a  history  of  American  literature  is  likely  to  mis 
lead  the  unthinking  reader.  Certain  qualifying  facts  should 
be  reckoned  with  in  drawing  any  deductions.  The  first  and 
most  specific  is  that  Poe,  although  born  in  Boston  and  largely 
active  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  belongs  to  the  South. 
His  poems  and  tales  are  without  time  and  space,  but  his 
criticisms  are  often  vigorously  sectional ;  yet  he  was  really  an 
isolated  character,  speaking  for  himself  without  associates 
or  disciples. 

For  the  comparative  withdrawal  of  the  South  during  a  long 
period  from  the  writing  and  publishing  of  poems,  essays,  and 
stories,  there  are  two  main  reasons.  One  is  the  general  nature 
of  the  early  settlement  (see  pp.  3,  4,  6).  The  spread  of  the 
population  over  a  wide  area  and  the  consequent  lack  of  large 
towns  gave  no  encouragement  to  printers  and  publishers  before 
the  Revolution  and  furnished  no  such  gathering  places  as 
Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia.  Literature,  like  all  the 
other  arts,  thrives  best  in  fellowship.  With  the  Revolution 
and  after  it  the  richest  culture  of  the  South  devoted  itself  to 
statesmanship  and  expressed  itself  in  oratory.  John  Adams, 
governmental  specialist,  regretted  that  he  had  no  leisure  for 
the  arts  (see  p.  69),  but  Thomas  Jefferson,  his  successor  in 
the  White  House,  was  a  creative  educator,  a  linguist,  an 
architect,  and  not  unversed  in  music.  Southern  gentlemen 
from  the  days  of  Jefferson  and  Madison  to  those  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  read  "Mr.  Addison  "  and  "Mr.  Steele  "  and  "Mr. 
Pope,"  fashioned  their  speech  and  writing  after  those  courtly 

343 


344       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

models,  and,  when  they  wrote  at  all,  circulated  their  efforts 
among  friends,  not  submitting  them  to  the  sordid  touch  of 
the  publisher. 

Moreover,  the  literary  consciousness  of  the  South  is  shown 
in  the  history  of  the  American  theater.  The  earliest  perform 
ances  of  which  there  is  record  were  given  on  Southern  estates 
in  the  second  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Hallam 
company  of  players,  arriving  from  England  in  1752,  secured 
their  first  hearing  in  Maryland  and  Virginia.  Smaller  Southern 
communities  held  their  own  with  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
in  the  patronage  of  the  stage,  while  surviving  Puritan  preju 
dice  made  New  England  an  arid  field  for  the  drama  until 
well  into  the  next  century.  Again,  the  founding  of  the 
University  of  Virginia,  preeminent  though  not  the  oldest 
among  Southern  colleges,  was  a  doubly  important  event  in 
American  education,  for  it  was  first  among  state  universities, 
with  a  curriculum  recognizing  the  demands  of  citizenship,  and 
it  was  unique  in  the  beauty  of  its  housing.  Finally,  journalism 
was  not  neglected  in  the  South,  keeping  pace  with  the  progress 
in  the  rest  of  the  country  ;  and  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger 
(1834-1865)  held  an  enviable  place  among  American  period 
icals  during  its  thirty  years  of  life. 

From  1850  the  natural  course  of  events  in  the  South  began 
to  develop  literary  centers,  of  which  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
was  the  most  notable.  At  this  date  William  Gilmore  Simms 
(1806-1870)  was  in  the  high  prime  of  life  and  was  the 
unchallenged  leader  by  virtue  of  age,  literary  achievement, 
and  force  of  personality.  He  had  appeared  before  the  public 
with  two  volumes  of  poems  in  1827,  without  foregoing  poetry 
had  gone  on  to  prolific  writing  of  adventure  stories,  and  had 
produced  at  the  rate  of  more  than  a  book  a  year.  He  was  an 
aboundingly  vigorous,  somewhat  turbulent  man,  with  a  stimu 
lating  gift  for  talk  and  a  very  generous  interest  in  all  men  of 
literary  feeling  and  especially  in  younger  aspirants.  Around 
him  and  John  Russell,  the  bookseller,  there  gathered  by  social 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  345 

gravitation  a  group  who  became  for  Charleston  what  the 
frequenters  of  the  Old  Corner  Book  Store  were  to  Boston 
and  rather  more  than  what  the  "Bohemians"  of  PfafFs 
restaurant  were  to  New  York.  Russell's  became  a  rendezvous 
for  the  best  people  during  the  daytimes  —  perhaps  to  buy, 
perhaps  only  to  talk  —  and  in  the  evenings  the  men  gathered 
in  the  spirit  of  a  literary  club,  though  without  organization  or 
name.  Russell's  Magazine  was  the  natural  fruit  of  the  group- 
spirit  thus  engendered,  just  as  the  Atlantic  Monthly  (see  p.  288) 
was  of  similar  associations  in  Boston  or  as  the  Dial  had  been 
of  the  Transcendental  Club  in  1840  (see  p.  195). 

It  was  a  further  consequence  of  this  plowing  of  the  cul 
tural  soil  that  two  Charleston  boys  born  in  1829  and  1830 
were  encouraged  as  young  men  not  only  to  write  but  to 
publish  their  poems  and  that  one  became  the*  first  editor  and 
the  other  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  local  periodical.  These 
were  Henry  Timrod  and  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne.  Of  the  two 
friends,  somewhat  as  in  the  case  of  Halleck  and  Drake, 
Timrod,  the  one  who  showed  promise  of  finer  things,  was 
the  victim  of  an  early  death.  As  a  youth  he  was  given  to  the 
introspective  seriousness  and  the  grave  extravagances  of  the 
growing  poet  —  characteristics  which  are  not  wholly  sacrificed 
in  the  grown  poet,  as  they  are  in  the  average  "  sensible  "  man. 
His  inclination  to^extol  emotion  as  an  end  in  itself,  however, 
was  fostered  by  a  native  hospitality  toward  sentimentalism  for 
which  there  was  little  to  correspond  in  the  more  prosaic  North. 
In  fact  "  the  susceptibility  of  early  feeling "  which  Irving 
wished  to  keep  alive  (see  p.  126)  and  which  was  the  central 
thread  in  Jane  Austen's  "  Sense  and  Sensibility "  was,  and 
still  is,  a  cue  to  certain  prevailing  Southern  traits.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  origin  of  Southern  speech  and  manners, 
they  have  continued  in  some  measure  to  resemble  those  which 
we  associate  with  English  literature  of  the  mid-eighteenth 
century.  Both  have  a  touch  of  c^ujlly^fojinality,  a  tendency 
toward  the  oratorical  style,  an  explicit  insistence  on  honor  and 


346        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

chivalry,    a   display   of   deference   to  womanhood   and   to   all 

beauty,  and  both  are  in  constant  danger  from  the  insincerity 

which  besets  a  speech  or  a  literature  which  relies  on  conventional 

phrasing  until  the  original  locutions  lose  their  original  vitality.1 

Timrod  as  a  youthful  versifier  passed  through  his  period 

of  unconvincing  extravagance,  and  even  in  his  earlier  work 

showed   by  occasional   flashes  that  he  had   his  own  gift  for 

expression  as  well  as  a  receptive  mind  for  poetry.    In   1859 

his  first  book  of  poems  was  published.     It  had  the  coveted 

distinction  of  the  Ticknor  and  Fields,  Boston,  imprint,  but  it 

was  indubitably  the  utterance  of  a  Charleston  poet.    The  sonnet 

N  "  I  know  not  why,  but  all  this  weary  day  "  is  full  of  genuine 

/  feeling,  and  in  its  ominous  despair  foretells  the  coming  war : 

Now  it  has  been  a  vessel  losing  way, 
Rounding  a  stormy  headland ;  now  a  gray 
Dull  waste  of  clouds  above  a  wintry  main ; 
And  then,  a  banner,  drooping  in  the  rain, 
And  meadows  beaten  into  bloody  clay. 

Timrod's  two  greater  poems  were  dedicated  to  the  Con 
federacy.  They  are  the  outpourings  of  loyalty  to  the  shortlived 
.nation,  full  of  passion,  no  freer  from  hate  and  recrimination 
than  the  average  poems  from  the  North,  but  positive  in  their 
ardent  faith  in  the  beneficent  part  the  Confederacy  was  to 
»  play  in  future  history.  Like  all  other  war  poets  he  suffered 
\from  the  embittering  effects  of  the  conflict.  His  first  inclination 
was  to  think  more  about  his  hopes  for  the  South  than  about 
his  hatred  of  the  North ;  yet  even  in  "  The  Cotton  Boll "  and 
in  "  Ethnogenesis  "  he  saw  red  at  times,  as  any  human  partisan 
was  bound  to  do.  The  newly  federated  South  was  to  send 
out  from  its  whitened  fields  an  idealized  cotton  crop  that 
11  only  bounds  its  blessings  by  mankind."  The  labors  of  the 

1  A  corresponding  danger  on  the  other  hand  is  that  a  people  who  abjure  all 
such  phrases  will  abjure  also  the  things  for  which  they  stand,  until  they 
become  irredeemably  prosaic  and  matter  of  fact. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  347 

planter  were  to  strengthen  the  sinews  of  the  world.  Yet  into 
this  finely  altruistic  mood  came  the  acrid  thought  of  the  war 
which  was  in  progress,  and  in  a  moment  he  was  vilifying  the 
"  Goth  "  in  the  same  breath  that  he  was  resolving  to  be 
merciful.  Timrod  endured  without  flinching  as  an  individual. 
As  a  confederate  patriot  he  dreamed 

Not  only  for  the  glories  which  the  years 

Shall  bring  us ;  not  for  lands  from  sea  to  sea, 

And  wealth,  and  power,  and  peace,  though  these  shall  be ; 

But  for  the  distant  peoples  we  shall  bless, 

And  the  hushed  murmurs  of  a  world's  distress. 

But  when  the  war  was  over,  in  his  "  Address  to  the  Old  Year  " 
(1866)  he  was  all  for  complete  and  speedy  reconciliation. 

A  time  of  peaceful  prayer, 

Of  law,  love,  labor,  honest  loss  and  gain  — 
These  are  the  visions  of  the  coming  reign 

Now  floating  to  them  on  this  wintry  air. 

Fortunately,  in  the  slow  approach  toward  this  millennial  con 
clusion  Timrod  was  spared  the  brutal  blunders  of  the  Recon 
struction  period,  for  he  died  within  the  next  twelvemonth, 
serene  in  his  hopes. 

Paul  Hamilton  Hayne  (1830-1886),  a  man  of  moderate 
talents  and  of  achievement  that  was  greater  in  bulk  than 
quality,  was  whole-heartedly  devoted  to  literature.  With  the 
founding  of  Russell's,  while  the  bookseller  supplied  the  capital 
and  Simms  the  general  stimulus,  Hayne  was  the  obviously 
willing  and  capable  young  man  to  carry  the  editorial  routine. 
If  the  war  had  not  cut  short  the  life  of  the  magazine  within 
three  years,  Hayne  might  have  fulfilled  a  long  and  useful 
career  in  its  guidance.  Moreover,  the  kind  of  criticism  to 
which  his  work  would  have  accustomed  him  might  have 
refined  his  own  verse  and  reduced  its  quantity  as  it  did  for 
Aldrich  and  Gilder.  But  a  career  like  theirs  was  denied  him 


348        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

when  Russell's  was  discontinued,  and  he  was  forced  into  the 
precarious  existence  of  living  by  his  pen  without  the  assurance 
of  any  regular  salary.  Though  this  may  be  a  sordid  detail,  it 
is  not  a  negligible  one,  for  the  lack  of  a  certain  income  not 
only  disturbs  the  artist's  mind  but  goads  him  to  writing  for 
monetary  rather  than  artistic  ends.  This  result  is  apparent  in 
Hayne's  work.  He  had  to  force  himself,  and  he  wrote  in 
consequence  the  only  kind  of  poetry  that  industry  and  good 
will  can  produce. 

Much  of  it  was  for  special  occasions.  He  wrote  on  demand 
for  everything,  from  art  exhibits  to  cotton  expositions,  always 
conscientiously  without  any  special  lightness  or  felicity.  He 
fell  into  the  conventional  nineteenth-century  habit  of  writing 
on  romantic  subjects  located  in  parts  of  the  earth  which  he 
l^new  only  from  other  men's  poetry.  His  best  work,  of  course, 
sprang  more  directly  from  his  experience.  Some  of  his  war 
lyrics  are  stirring,  though  seldom  up  to  Timrod's  best.  Some 
of  his  protests  after  the  war  are  spirited  and  wholly  justified  by 
the  stupid  clumsiness  of  Northern  control.  "  South  Carolina  to 
the  States  of  the  North  "  and  "  The  Stricken  South  to  the 
North "  suggest  in  verse  what  Page's  "  Red  Rock "  and 
TourgeVs  "  A  Fool's  Errand  "  present  through  the  detail  of 
extended  novels.  Hayne's  tributes  to  other  poets,  particularly 
to  Longfellow  and  Whittier,  are  full  of  generous  admiration, 
and  his  nature  poems  ring  finely  true.  Most  of  all  the  Southern 
pine  fascinated  him  by  its  perennial  grace  and  strength  and 
its  mysterious  voice.  A  pine-tree  anthology  could  be  culled 
from  his  verse. 

To  be  the  poet  of  a  class  or  a  district  and  no  more  than 
that  is  ordinarily  not  a  notable  achievement,  but  the  fact  that 
they  represented  an  epoch  as  well  as  a  section  emphasizes 
the  significance  of  Timrod  and  Hayne.  They  were  products 
of  freshly  stimulating  conditions  in  the  South ;  before  the 
war  they  began  to  sing  for  a  neighborhood  that  had  long  been 
comparatively  silent.  And  when  the  war  came  on,  and  after 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  349 

its  conclusion,  they  were  not  only  its  best  singers  but  they 
were  remarkable  in  war  literature  for  the  fineness  of  their 
positive  spirit  and  their  relative  freedom  from  abusive  rancor. 
They  reaped  in  love  and  praise  the  reward  that  their  impoverished 
constituency  could  not  pay  them  in  money. 

Sidney  Lanier  was  born  in  Macon,  Georgia,  in  1842.  He 
was  therefore  twelve  or  thirteen  years  younger  than  Hayne 
or  Timrod,  and  his  productive  period  was  correspondingly 
later,  namely,  in  the  7o's.  He  could  trace  his  Lanier  ancestry 
back  to  the  court  musicians  of  the  Stuarts,  and  beyond  them 
to  a  conjectured  past  in  France.  His  mother  sang  and  played 
in  the  home,  and  his  father,  a  courtly  and  refined  lawyer,  was 
a  "gentle  reader  "  of  the  old  Southern  school.  Macon  was  a 
town  of  extreme  orthodoxy  where  "  the  only  burning  issues 
were  sprinkling  versus  immersion,  freewill  versus  predestina 
tion,"  but  where  the  rigors  of  Calvinism  were  mollified  by 
innocent  merrymaking  and  the  amenities  of  Southern  hospital 
ity.  From  here  Lanier  went,  in  1857,  to  Oglethorpe  University 
as  a  member  of  the  sophomore  class,  graduating  from  the 
modest  college  with  first  honors  in  1860.  Though  successful 
in  scholarship,  he  had  found  his  chief  enjoyments  in  wide 
reading  of  romantic  literature  and  in  flute-playing.  He  was 
convinced  that  his  talents  were  in  music,  but  his  strong  ethical 
bias  led  him  to  check  them  because  he  could  not  satisfactorily 
answer  the  question,  What  is  the  provide  of  music  in  the 
economy  of  the  world  ?  On  his  appointment  as  tutor  at 
Oglethorpe  he  decided  to  remain  in  college-teaching,  rounding 
out  his  preparation  by  two  years  at  Heidelberg.  When  the 
war  broke  he  seemed  to  be  well  started  on  the  path  trod  by 
Longfellow  and  Lowell. 

In  "Tiger  Lilies,"  his  early  romance,  he  described  how  the 
"afflatus  of  war"  swept  the  South  as  it  sweeps  any  land  in 
the  first  hours  of  decision.  "  Its  sound  mingled  with  the 
serenity  of  the  church  organs  and  arose  with  the  earnest 


350        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

words  of  preachers  praying  for  guidance  in  the  matter.  It 
sighed  in  the  half-breathed  words  of  sweethearts,  conditioning 
impatient  lovers  with  war  services.  It  thundered  splendidly  in 
the  impassioned  words  of  orators  to  the  people.  It  whistled 
through  the  streets,  it  stole  into  the  firesides,  it  clinked  glasses 
in  barrooms,  it  lifted  the  gray  hairs  of  our  wise  men  in  con 
ventions,  it  thrilled  through  the  lectures  in  college  halls,  it 
rustled  the  thunibed  book  leaves  of  the  schoolrooms.  ...  It 
offered  tests  to  all  allegiances  and  loyalties,  —  of  church,  of 
state  ;  of  private  loves,  of  public  devotion  ;  of  personal  consan 
guinity,  of  social  ties."  In  1861  Lanier  enlisted  in  the  first 
Georgia  regiment  to  leave  for  the  front.  Four  years  later  he 
returned  with  health  permanently  impaired  by  the  hardships 
of  service  and  of  a  prison  camp. 

Even  though  wrecked  in  health,  he  came  out  from  the  war 
saddened  but  not  embittered,  and  convinced  as  early  as  1867 
that  the  saving  of  the  Union  had  been  worth  the  ordeal.  His 
insistence  that  hatreds  should  be  buried  was  maintained  in  face 
of  every  influence  to  the  contrary.  The  countryside  had  been 
devastated  and  business  brought  to  a  stop.  Libraries  had 
been  destroyed  and  colleges  closed.  As  recuperation  began 
the  magnanimous  influence  of  Lincoln  waned,  and  the  reign 
of  the  "  carpetbaggers  "  inflamed  the  worst  elements  in  the 
South,  drove  some  of  the  better  in  despair  to  other  parts  of 
the  country,  and  reduced  the  rest  to  bruised  and  heartsick 
indignation.  Lanierxould  not  be  unaffected  by  such  conditions. 
He  took  refuge  in  grinding  work :  first  in  teaching  and  then 
in  several  years  of  law  practice  in  the  examination  of  title 
deeds.  "Tiger  Lilies"  was  published  in  1867  by  Hurd  and 
Houghton  in  New  York,  and  a  number  of  poems  were  printed 
there  in  the  Round  Table  during  1867  and  1868.  But  depres 
sion  and  drudgery  tended  to  silence  him,  and  might  have  done 
so  if  the  music  in  him  h*ad  succumbed  with  the  poetry  and  if 
the  poetry  had  not  been  revived  by  the  stimulating  friendships 
of  two  older  men,  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne  and  Bayard  Taylor. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  351 

Music  gained  a  new  hold  on  him  during  an  enforced  health 
trip  to  Texas  in  the  winter  of  1872-1873.  He  had  reveled 
in  the  concerts  he  had  heard  in  different  visits  to  New  York 
after  the  war,  but  in  San  Antonio  he  fell  in  with  a  group  of 
musicians  for  whom  he  was  a  player  as  well  as  an  auditor. 
Without  any  formal  instruction  in  the  flute  he  had  achieved 
such  a  command  of  the  instrument  that  it  had  become  a  second 
voice  for  him.  In  the  autumn  of  '73  he  met  and  played  for 
Hamerick,  Director  of  the  Peabody  Conservatory  of  Music  in 
Baltimore,  and  in  December  he  went  in  triumph  to  his  initial 
rehearsal  as  first  flutist  in  the  newly  organized  Peabody  Sym 
phony  Orchestra.  For  the  rest  of  his  life  music  was.  his  most 
reliable  means  of  support  and  a  source  of  pleasure  that 
amounted  to  little  less  than  dissipation.  As  a  performer  he 
was  in  great  demand  for  extra  local  engagements,  from  which 
he  seemed  to  gain  quite  as  much  enjoyment  as  he  gave  —  for 
he  played  in  a  kind  of  ecstasy ;  he  "  felt  in  his  performance 
the  superiority  of  the  tmomenfary  inspiration,  to  all  the  rules 
and  shifts  of  mere  technical  scholarship."  As  an  auditor, 
whether  of  his  own  music  or  that  rendered  by  others,  his 
appreciation  was  almost  wholly  sensuous,  an  experience  of 
raptures,  thrills,  and  swooning  joys.  "  Divine  lamentations, 
far-off  blowings  of  great  winds,  flutterings  of  tree  and  flower 
leaves  and  airs  troubled  with  wing-beats  of  birds  or  spirits ; 
floatings  hither  and  thither  of  strange  incenses  and  odors  and 
essences ;  warm  floods  of  sunlight,  cool  gleams  of  moonlight, 
faint  enchantments  of  twilight ;  delirious  dances,  noble  marches, 
processional  chants,  hymns  of  joy  and  grief :  Ah,  midst  all 
these  I  lived  last  night,  in  the  first  chair  next  to  Theodore 
Thomas'  orchestra."  From  such  a  comment  one  is  prepared 
for  frequent  references  to  the  more  modern  composers,  few 
to  Beethoven,  and  none  at  all  to  Bach  and  Brahms ;  and  one 
is  helped  to  understand  also  the  mistakenly  limited  dictum  — 
too  often  quoted  —  that  "Music  is  love  in  search  of  a  word." 
Music  was  immensely  important  in  Lanier's  emotional  life  ; 


352        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

the  kind  that  he  most  enjoyed,  and  the  kind  of  enjoyment  he 
derived  from  it,  furnished  the  cue  for  an  interpretation  of  much 
of  his  poetry  —  a  cue  which  is  the  clearer  when  compared  with 
what  music  meant  to  Browning. 

The  development  of  a  Baltimore  orchestra  in  1873  was  an 
expression  of  the  reawakening  of  artistic  life  from  Baltimore 
to  the  Gulf.  By  1870  the  call  was  repeatedly  sounded  for  a 
new  literature  and  a  new  criticism  in  the  South.  Short-lived 
magazines  sprang  up  and  were  flooded  with  copy  before  their 
early  deaths.  Much  was  written  that  was  ostentatiously  sec 
tional  in  tone,  but  much  by  men  like  Hayne  and  Cable  and 
Page  that  approached  the  standard  set  by  Joel  Chandler  Harris 
in  his  appeal  for  a  literature  which  should  be  "intensely  local 
in  feeling,  but  utterly  unprejudiced  and  unpartisan  as  to  opin 
ions,  traditions,  and  sentiment.  Whenever  we  have  a  genuine 
Southern  literature,  it  will  be  American  and  cosmopolitan  as 
well."  Equally  in  the  interest  of  the  South  was  Hayne's 
demand  for  criticism  which  should  put  a  quietus  on  the  fatuous 
scribblers  who  had  nothing  to  say  and  said  it  badly.  "  No  for 
eign  ridicule,"  he  wrote  in  the  Southern  Magazine  in  1874, 
"  can  stop  this  growing  evil,  until  our  own  scholars  and  thinkers 
have  the  manliness  and  honesty  to  discourage  instead  of  applaud 
ing  such  manifestations  of  artistic  weakness  and  artistic  platitudes 
as  have  hitherto  been  foisted  on  us  by  persons  uncalled  and 
unchosen  of  any  of  the  muses." 

At  the  same  time  a  generously  enterprising  spirit  led  several 
of  the  leading  Northern  editors  to  accept  and  even  solicit  con 
tributions  from  the  South.  In  1873  Scribners  Monthly  pro 
jected  and  secured  a  widely  advertised  series  of  articles  on  "the 
great  South."  Harper  s  had  a  series  of  its  own.  The  Atlantic, 
with  Howells  as  editor,  followed  conservatively,  and  the  Inde 
pendent  opened  its  columns  to  the  poetry  of  the  men  whom 
it  had  condemned  in  most  aggressive  terms  a  dozen  years 
earlier.  More  important  to  Lanier  than  any  of  these  was 
Lippincotfs,  in  which  "Corn,"  "The  Symphony,"  and  "The 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  353 

Psalm  of  the  West,"  with  certain  shorter  poems,  were  published 
in  1875,  1876,  and  1877  —  poems  by  which  his  wide  reputation 
was  established. 

The  encouragement  given  him  by  Hayne  in  the  dark  days 
of  the  law,  when  he  had  no  time  to  write,  was  followed  by  a 
Northern  friendship  of  even  greater  value  to  him  when  the 
Lippincott  poems  were  brought  to  the  kindly  attention  of 
Bayard  Taylor.  This  busy  and  large-hearted  man  of  letters 
seems  to  have  been  the  literary  friend  of  his  whole  generation. 
He  was  on  terms  of  easy  acquaintance  with  the  most  renowned 
of  his  day.  He  was  a  companion  of  publishers,  editors,  and 
journalists,  and  he  showed  a  most  generous  interest  in  the 
fortunes  of  promising  younger  men.  His  literary  status  is  sum 
marized  in  his  relation  to  the  literary  ceremonies  of  the  Cen 
tennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia  in  1876.  He  wrote  the  Ode 
for  the  Fourth  of  July  celebration  after  the  honor  had  been 
declined  by  Bryant,  Lowell,  and  Longfellow,  and  he  had  suffi 
cient  influence  to  gain  for  Lanier  the  distinction  of  writing 
the  Cantata  for  the  opening  ceremonies.  The  exchange  of  let 
ters  between  the  two  in  connection  with  their  efforts  is  unsur 
passed  as  a  record  of  detailed  processes  in  poetic  composition, 
criticism  and  rejoinder,  and  final  revision. 

Lanier's  conscious  command  of  a  poetic  theory  was  a  product 
of  his  habits  of  study  and  led  to  his  appointment  by  President 
Daniel  Coit  Oilman  as  lecturer  in  English  literature  at  Johns 
Hopkins  University.1  From  youth  Lanier  had  been  an  exten-. 
sive  reader  of  the  early  English  classics,  and  in  Baltimore  he 
eagerly  used  the  resources  of  the  Peabody  Library,  which  was 
maintained  especially  for  research  students.  He  was  keenly 
interested  in  stimulating  general  intelligence  in  literature 
among  the  adult  public  and  also  in  promoting  exact  and 
technical  study  by  qualified  scholars.  In  1878  he  plunged  once 

1  This  was  the  second  time  that  President  Oilman  had  placed  a  poet  in  the 
position  of  teacher,  for  he  had  already  done  this  with  Edward  Rowland  Sill  at 
the  University  of  California  (see  p.  397). 


354        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

more  into  study,  planned  lecture  courses,  projected  a  research 
program  for  himself,  and  early  in  the  next  year  received  the 
Hopkins  appointment.  He  approached  his  work  with  the 
utmost  zest  and,  as  long  as  his  strength  lasted,  lectured  effec 
tively  and  "worked  on  the  critical  texts  and  treatises  which  the 
scholarship  of  his  time  was  just  beginning  to  supply.  Now, 
however,  when  he  had  established  working  relations  with  the 
orchestra  and  the  university,  he  sank  under  the  strain  of  all 
the  preceding  struggle,  and  in  1881  he  died  before  reaching 
his  fortieth  year. 

Lanier's  abiding  conviction  put  the  poet  on  the  same  plane 
with  the  prophet  and  the  seer.  He  was  far  from  according 
with  Poe's  total  subordination  of  intellect  and  moral  sense  to 
the  feeling  for  beauty.  He  seldom  or  never  wrote  a  didactic 
poem,  but  he  usually  composed  over  a  strong  moralistic  counter 
point.  In-  "  Corn  "  the  poet 

leads  the  vanward  of  his  timid  time 
And  sings  up  cowards  with  commanding  rhyme. 

In  "The  Bee"  he  will  wage  wars  for  the  world.  In  "The 
Marshes  of  Glynn  "  he  is 

the  catholic  man  who  hath  mightily  won 
God  out  of  knowledge  and  good  out  of  infinite  pain. 

The  poet's  judgments  are,  therefore,  certain  to  surpass  those 
of  his  age,  certain  to  reap  a  harvest  of  derision  and  abuse,  and 
certain  to  approach  the  right  because  they  are  made  in  the 
light  of  eternity  rather  than  in  the  ephemeral  shadow  of  any 
passing  day. 

The  tolling  of  the  bell  of  time  which  resounds  throughout 
Lanier's  poems  does  not  deafen  him  to  the  harmonies  or  the 
discords  of  the  moment.  With  all  his  consciousness  of  liter 
ary  tradition  he  was  far  more  alive  to  the  present  than  many 
of  his  Southern  contemporaries,  who  were  not  so  genuinely 
literary  as  imitatively  bookish.  "  Corn  "  tells  the  tale  of  the 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH        355 

improvident  cotton-grower  who  becomes  "A  gamester's  catspaw 
and  a  banker's  slave."  "  The  Symphony  "  is  an  arraignment 
of  the  industrial  system. 

If  business  is  battle,  name  it  so : 
War-crimes  less  will  shame  it  so, 
And  widows  less  will  blame  it  so. 

"  Acknowledgment  "  (first  sonnet)  and  "  Remonstrance  "  were 
written  of  the  troublous  period  which  was  wracked  between 
doubts  that  merely  disturbed  and  dogmas  which  were  still 
advocated  with  all  the  subtleties  of  persecution  that  —  in  an 
enlightened  age  —  will  substitute  ostracism  for  the  stake  and 
social  boycott  for  excommunication. 

In  the  modest  volume  of  his  collected  work — for  his  writing 
was  mainly  done  in  his  last  eight  years,  and  he  was  not  a 
garrulous  poet  —  there  is  a  marked  variety.  "The  Revenge  of 
Hamish  "  is  a  clear  reflection  of  his  zest  for  heroic  story.  It 
is  one  of  the  notably  successful  attempts  of  his  day  to  emulate 
the  old  ballad,  and  it  is  the  better  for  restoring  the  spirit  of 
balladry  without  imitating  the  manner.  "  How  Love  Looked 
for  Hell,"  without  being  imitative  of  anyone,  is  distinctly  pre- 
Raphaelite  in  tone.  Rossetti  might  have  written  it.  In  "  The 
Stirrup-Cup  "  there  is  an  Elizabethan  note,  and  "  Night  and 
Day"  and  the  "Marsh  Song  —  at  Sunset"  are  literary  lyrics 
for  the  readers  of  "Othello"  and  "The  Tempest."  These 
and  their  like  give  token  of  Lanier's  versatility,  just  as  the 
"  Song  of  the  Chattahoochee  "  displays  his  command  of  certain 
obvious  devices  in  diction  and  rhythm ;  but  the  poems  most 
distinctive  of  Lanier  and  most  generally  quoted  are  the  longer 
meditations  already  mentioned,  and,  in  particular,  "  The  Sym 
phony  "  and  "The  Marshes  of  Glynn."  Of  these  the  earlier 
is  much  quoted  by  social  reformers  for  the  vigor  of  its  protests 
at  the  exploitation  of  labor ;  by  musicians,  because  of  the  sus 
tained  metaphor  —  though  it  might  better  have  been  named 
"The  Orchestra" ;  and  by  those  who  love  a  certain  fulsomeness 


356       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  sensuous  appeal  in  verse.  This  last  trait  gains  friends  also 
for  "The  Marshes  of  Glynn,"  though  its  supreme  passage, 
the  last  forty  lines,  is  free  from  the  decorative  elaborations 
which  in  the  earlier  portion  distract  the  reader  from  the 
content  they  adorn. 

In  the  development  of  artistic  power  the  formative  period  is 
the  most  open  to  influence  and  the  most  likely  to  be  formal 
and  self-conscious.  Early  and  full  maturity  bring  the  nicest 
balance  between  the  thing  said  and  the  manner  of  saying  it; 
and  a  later  period  often  is  marked  by  overcompression  or  over- 
elaboration,  a  neglect  of  form  in  favor  of  content.  Lanier,  who 
died  on  the  approach  to  middle  life,  had  just  published  "The 
Science  of  English  Verse  "  and  was  studiously  aware  of  poetic 
processes,  from  the  ingenious  conceits  of  the  "  Paradise  of  Dainty 
Devices  "  to  the  metrical  experiments  of  Swinburne  and  his 
contemporaries.  In  the  compound  of  factors  which  were 
blending  into  the  matured  Lanier  there  was  still  a  good 
measure  of  Elizabethan  ingenuity.  He  felt  a  pleasant  thrill 
in  riding  a  metaphor  down  the  page.  He  played  repeatedly, 
for  example,  with  the  concept  of  the  passage  of  time.  In  the 
second  sonnet  of  "  Acknowledgment "  this  age  is  a  comma, 
and  all  time  a  complex  sentence  (four  lines) ;  in  "  Clover " 
the  course-of-things  is  a  browsing  ox  (twenty-five  lines) ; 
in  "  The  Symphony  "  the  leaves  are  dials  on  which  time  tells 
his  hours  (three  lines) ;  in  the  first  of  the  "  Sonnets  on 
Columbus  "  prickly  seconds  and  dull-blade  minutes  mark  three 
hours  of  suspense  (three  lines) ;  and  in  "  The  Stirrup-Cup  " 
death  is  a  cordial  compounded  by  time  from  the  reapings  of 
poets  long  dead  (twelve  lines).  These  all  are  picturesquely 
suggestive,  but  they  are  rather  imposed  on  the  idea  than 
derived  from  it.  Other  poets,  to  be  sure,  have  erred  in  the 
same  way  and  then  perhaps  redeemed  themselves.  Lanier, 
however,  said  nothing  so  fundamentally  true  and  compact  as 
Pope's  "  Years  following  years  steal  something  every  day," 
or  Shakespeare's  "And  that  old  common  arbitrator ;  Time,"  or 
his  "  whirligig  of  time."  There  is  a  similar  reaching  for  effect 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  357 

in  the  rhythmical  quality  of  many  well-known  passages.  The 
twelve-line  description  of  the  velvet  flute-note  in  "  The  Sym 
phony  "  is  more  deft  and  intricate  than  convincing.  The  figures 
stumble  on  each  other's  heels,  and  the  alliterations,  assonances, 
and  three-  and  five-fold  rimes  are  intrusively  gratuitous.  In  like 
manner  the  opening  lines  of  "  The  Marshes  of  Glynn  "  illus 
trate  the  over-luxuriance  of  Lanier.  He  delighted  in  tropical 
exuberance;  he  rioted  in  his  letters  with  less  restraint  than 
in  his  verse,  and  in  one  written  to  his  wife  in  1874  he  con 
fessed  parenthetically:  "In  plain  terms  —  sweet  Heaven,  how 
I  do  abhor  these  same  plain  terms  —  I  have  been  playing 
'  Stradella.' "  When  he  wrote  this  Lanier  was  thirty-two. 
Before  his  death  he  had  approached  the  point  of  liking  the 
plain  term  better  and  employing  it  oftener. 

"  The  Marshes  of  Glynn  "  is  a  personal  utterance  of  Lanier 
in  its  form,  in  its  sensuous  opulence,  in  its  social  sympathies, 
and  in  its  religion ;  but  in  these  latter  respects  it  is  emphatically 
the  utterance  also  of  the  period  that  produced  Lanier.  It  was 
written  in  1878,  the  year  of  Bryant's  death  ;  it  was  written  in 
the  structural  sequence  of  Bryant's  "  Thanatopsis  " ;  and  in  its 
applications  it  indicates  the  changes  that  had  taken  place  in 
religious  thought  since  Bryant's  youth.  In  the  earlier  poem 
the  various  language  that  Nature  speaks  is  expounded  in 
general  terms,  before  "  Thoughts  of  the  last  bitter  hour  "  lead 
to  the  monody  on  death  and  the  resolve  so  to  live  that  death 
shall  have  no  fears.  The  latter  poem  differentiates  the  tones  of 
Nature,  lingering  first  in  the  cloistral  depths  of  the  woods  during 
the  heat  of  a  June  day.  In  the  cool  and  quiet  the  poet's 

.  .  .  heart  is  at  ease  from  men,  and  the  wearisome  sound  of  the  stroke 
Of  the  scythe  of  time  and  the  trowel  of  trade  is  low, 
And  belief  overmasters  doubt. 

So,  toward  sunset,  he  leaves  the  protected  green  colonnades 
and  goes  out  unafraid  to  face  the  expanse  of  "a  world  of 
marsh  that  borders  a  world  of  sea."  Here  Nature,  who  has 
consoled  him  in  the  forest,  fills  him  with  a  great  exhilaration. 


358        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Oh,  what  is  abroad  in  the  marsh  and  the  terminal  sea  ? 

Somehow  my  soul  seems  suddenly  free 

From  the  weighing  of  fate  and  the  sad  discussion  of  sin, 

By  the  length  and  the  breadth  and  the  sweep  of  the  marshes  of  Glynn. 

From  the  marshes  he  learns  a  lesson  of  life  rather  than  of 
death  —  the  spiritual  value  of  aspiration  and  the  emancipating 
gift  of  a  broad  faith.  " Thanatopsis  "  ends  with  a  nobly  stated  but 
restraining  admonition;  "The  Marshes"  with  a  song  of  liberty: 

I  will  fly  in  the  greatness  of  God  as  the  marsh-hen  flies 

In  the  freedom  that  fills  all  the  space  'twixt  the  marsh  and  the  skies : 

By  so  many  roots  as  the  marsh-grass  sends  in  the  sod 

I  will  heartily  lay  me  a-hold  of  the  greatness  of  God. 

This  is  written  in  the  positive  mood  —  and  in  the  measure, 
too  —  of  Browning's  "  Saul."  Both  poems  record  the  throw 
ing  off  of  paralyzing  restraint  and  the  substitution  of  hope 
for  dread  that  resulted  from  the  religious  struggles  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Lanier  went  far  toward  representing  the  South  by  the  best 
of  all  methods,  which  is  to  write  as  a  citizen  of  the  world  and 
not  as  a  sectionalist.  He  was  not  at  the  height  of  his  maturity, 
and  he  wrote  at  times  with  the  exuberance  and  at  times  with 
the  self-consciousness  that  he  would  in  all  likelihood  have  out 
grown  in  the  fullness  of  years.  He  was  an  aggressive  thinker. 
Only  the  indifference  of  his  generation  to  poetry  can  account 
for  the  fact  that  he  was  not  persecuted  for  the  courage  of 
many  utterances.  And  he  was  essentially  the  poet  in  artistry 
as  well  as  in  vision. 

BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

Collections 

CLARKE,  JENNIE  T.     Songs   of   the    South   (Introduction  by  J.  C. 

Harris).    1913. 

FULTON,  N.  G.    Southern  Life  in  Southern  Literature.   1917. 
KENT,  C.  W.  (literary  editor).    Library  of  Southern  Literature.   1907. 

15  vols. 
MANLY,  LOUISE.    Southern  Literature.   1895. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  359 

MOORE,  FRANK.    Songs  and  Ballads  of  the  Southern  People.    1886. 
TRENT,  W.  P.  Southern  Writers.  Selections  in  Prose  and  Verse.  1905. 
WAUCHOPE,  G.  A.  Writers  of  South  Carolina,    1910. 

History  and  Criticism 

BASKERVILL,  W.  M.    Southern  Writers:  Biographical  and  Critical 

Studies.    1898-1903.    2  vols. 

DAVIDSON,  J.  W.    Living  Writers  of  the  South.    1869. 
DE  MENIL,  A.  N.    Literature  of  the  Louisiana  Territory.   1904. 
HOLLIDAY,  CARL.    History  of  Southern  Literature.    1906. 
LINK,  S.  A.    Pioneers  of  Southern  Literature.    1903.    2  vols. 
ORGAIN,  KATE  A.    Southern  Authors  in  Poetry  and  Prose.   1908. 
PAINTER,  F.  V.  N.    Poets  of  the  South.   1903. 
PAINTER,  F.  V.  N.    Poets  of  Virginia.   1907. 

Among   periodical  articles   some  of  the  more  important  are  as 
follows : 

BASKERVILL,  W.  M.    Southern  Literature.   Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Assoc., 

Vol.  VII,  p.  89. 
COLEMAN,    C.  W.     Recent    Movement    in    Southern    Literature. 

Harper's,  Vol.  LXXIV,  p.  837. 
HENNEMAN,  J.   B.     National    Element   in    Southern    Literature. 

Sewanee  Review,  Vol.  XI,  p.  345. 
MABIE,  H.  W.    The  Poetry  of  the  South.   International  Monthly, 

Vol.  V,  p.  200. 
SMITH,  C.  A.   Possibilities  of  Southern  Literature.  Sewanee  Review, 

Vol.  VI,  p.  298. 
SNYDER,  H.   N.     The    Matter   of   Southern    Literature.    Sewanee 

Review,  Vol.  XV,  p.  218. 
TRENT,  W.  P.    Dominant  Forces  in  Southern  Life.   Atlantic,  Vol. 

LXXIX,  p.  42. 
WOODBERRY,  G.  E.    The   South  in  American  Letters.    Harper's, 

Vol.  CVII,  p.  735. 

Individual  Authors 

HENRY  TIMROD.  Works.  Memorial  Edition.  1899,  1901.  These  ap 
peared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows :  Poems,  1 860.  Complete 
edition  (edited  by  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne),  1873,  1874;  Katie,  1884. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

Memoir  prefixed  to  editions  of  1899  and  1901.    Sketch  with  edition 

of  1872,  by  P.  H.  Hayne. 

AUSTIN,  H.    Henry  Timrod.    International  Review,  September,  1880. 
HAYNE,  P.  H.    Sketch  with  edition  of  1872. 
Ross,  C.  H.    The  New  Edition  of  Timrod.    Sewanee  Review,  October, 

1899. 
ROUTH,  J.  E.    Some  Fugitive  Poems   of   Timrod.    South  Atlantic 

Quarterly,  January,  1903. 


360        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

WAUCHOPE,  G.  A.    Henry  Timrod,  Laureate  of  the  Confederacy. 

Noith  Carolina  Review,  May  5,  1912. 
WAUCHOPE,  G.  A.    Henry  Timrod  :  Man  and  Poet,  a  Critical  Study. 


See  also  volumes  of  history  and  criticism  under  General  References, 
above. 

PAUL  HAMILTON  HAYNE.  Works.  Poems  of.  Complete  edition  (his 
own  selection),  with  biographical  introduction  by  Margaret  Preston. 
1882.  The  work  appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows: 
Poems,  1855  ;  Sonnets,  and  Other  Poems,  1857,  1859;  Avolio,  1860; 
Legends  and  Lyrics,  1872;  The  Mountain  of  the  Lovers,  1875; 
Life  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  1878;  Life  of  Hugh  S.  Legare,  1878. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

There  is  no  adequate  biography  of  Hayne. 

ALLAN,  ELIZABETH  PRESTON.  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Margaret 
Junkin  Preston.  1903. 

BROWN,  J.  T.,  JR.  Paul  Hamilton  Hale.  Sewance  Review^  April,  1906. 

LANIER,  SIDNEY.    Essays.   1899. 

MIMS,  E.    Sidney  Lanier.    1905. 

PRESTON,  MARGARET  JUNKIN.  Introduction  to  edition  of  1882  (see 
above). 

See  also  the  Library  of  Southern  Literature,  in  which  the  introduction 
to  the  selections  from  Hayne  is  well  supplemented  by  his  own 
reminiscences  reprinted  from  the  Southern  Bivouac.  See  also 
Paul  Hamilton  Hayne  (edited  by  S.  A.  Link)  and  the  passages  in 
the  survey  histories. 

SIDNEY  LANIER.  Works.  Poems  of  Sidney  Lanier,  edited  by  his  wife, 
with  a  memorial  by  William  Hayes  Ward.  1884.  Select  poems  of 
Sidney  Lanier,  edited  with  an  introduction,  notes,  and  bibliography, 
by  Morgan  Callaway.  1895.  (The  critical  edition.)  Lanier's  works 
appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows  :  Tiger  Lilies,  a  Novel, 
1867;  Florida,  its  Scenery,  Climate,  and  History,  1876;  Poems, 
1877;  The  Boy's  Froissart,  1878;  The  Science  of  English  Verse, 
1880  ;  The  Boy's  King  Arthur,  1880  ;  The  Boy's  Mabinogion,  1881  ; 
The  Boy's  Percy,  1882;  The  English  Novel,  1883;  Music  and 
Poetry:  Essays,  1898;  Retrospects  and  Prospects,  1899;  Shake 
speare  and  his  Forerunners,  1902. 

Bibliographies 

A  bibliography  prepared  for  the  Southern  History  Association  by 

G.  S.  Wills,  July,  1899. 
A  bibliography  appended   to    Select   Poems  of   Lanier  (edited  by 

Morgan  Callaway).    1895.    Also  Cambridge  History  of  American 

Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  600-603. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  SOUTH  361 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  Edwin  Mims.    1905.    (A.M.L.  Ser.) 

See  also  Letters  of  Sidney  Lanier.  Selections  from  his  Correspond 
ence,  1866-1881.  1911. 

CARROLL,  C.  C.  Synthesis  and  Analysis  of  the  Poetry  of  Sidney 
Lanier.  1910. 

CLARKE,  G.  H.  Some  Reminiscences  and  Early  Letters  of  Sidney 
Lanier.  1907. 

OILMAN,  D.  C.  Sidney  Lanier,  Reminiscences  and  Letters.  South 
Atlantic  Quarterly,  April,  1905. 

GOSSE,  EDMUND.    Questions  at  Issue.   1893. 

HIGGINSON,  T.  W.    Contemporaries.   1899. 

KENT,  C.  W.  A  Study  of  Lanier's  Poems.  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Assoc., 
Vol.  VII,  pp.  33-63. 

MOSES,  M.  J.   The  Literature  of  the  South.    1910. 

NORTHRUP,  M.  H.  Sidney  Lanier,  Recollections  and  Letters.  Lip- 
pincotfs,  March,  1905. 

TOLMAN,  A.  H.   Views  about  Hamlet  and  Other  Essays. 

TRENT,  W.  P.    Southern  Writers.   1905. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Read  the  poems  or  passages  alluded  to  in  the  text  on  sentimental- 
ism  by  Irving  (p.  126),  Cooper  (p.  148),  Bryant  (p.  163),  Longfellow 
(p.  269),  and  compare  with  the  statement  on  Timrod. 

Compare  Timrod's  "  Cotton  Boll "  with  Bryant's  "  The  Sower  " 
or  Lanier's  "  Corn  "  for  the  imaginative  grasp  of  what  had  ordinarily 
been  considered  a  prosaic  subject. 

Read  the  war  lyrics  of  Timrod  or  Hayne  and  compare  in  subject, 
treatment,  and  temper  with  the  corresponding  work  of  a  Northern  poet. 

Read  several  poems  of  Lanier  taken  at  random  for  the  allusions 
to  music. 

Read  Lanier  for  the  evident  influence  of  Shakespeare  in  supplying 
him  with  poetic  material.  Is  there  evidence  that  he  was  affected  by 
Shakespeare's  poetic  form  ? 

Read  the  Taylor-Lanier  correspondence  with  reference  to  the 
Centennial  Cantata.  Does  the  poem  fulfill  Lanier's  intentions  ? 

Read  Lanier's  poems  and  passages  on  poetry  and  the  poet  and 
compare  them  with  similar  passages  in  the  work  of  another  poet. 

Read  Lanier,  Timrod,  or  Hayne  for  the  presence  of  nature 
allusions  which  would  be  natural  only  for  a  poet  of  the  South. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

WALT  WHITMAN 

Walt  Whitman  (1819-1892)  and  Mark  Twain  are  the  two 
authors  whom  the  rest  of  the  world  have  chosen  to  regard 
as  distinctively  American.  They  are  in  fact  more  strikingly 
different  from  European  writers  than  any  other  two  in  their 
outer  and  inner  reaction  against  cultural  tradition,  though  it 
is  an  error  to  regard  Americanism  as  an  utterly  new  thing 
instead  of  a  compound  of  new  and  old  elements.  Whitman 
was  born  on  Long  Island  in  1819: 

My  tongue,  every  atom  of  my  blood,  form'd  from  this  soil,  this  air, 
Born  here  of  parents  born  here,  from  parents  the  same,  and  their 
parents  the  same. 

They  were  simple,  natural,  country  people,  —  the  mother,  mild- 
mannered  and  competent,  and  the  father,  "  strong,  self-sufficient, 
manly,  mean,  anger 'd,  unjust,"  —  people  with  the  kind  of  stal 
wart  nai'vete  who  would  christen  three  of  their  sons  Andrew 
Jackson,  George  Washington,  and  Thomas  Jefferson.  Walt 
was  the  second  of  nine  children.  From  boyhood  he  was  quite 
able  to  take  care  of  himself  —  amiable,  slow-going,  fond  of 
chatting  with  the  common  folk  of  his  own  kind,  and  happy 
out  of  doors,  whether  on  the  beach  or  among  the  Long  Island 
hills.  At  twelve  he  began  to  work  for  his  living  —  in  a  lawyer's 
office  and  a  doctor's,  in  printing  shops  and  small  newspaper 
offices,  and  in  more  than  one  school.  Newspaper  work 
included  writing  as  well  as  typesetting  and  everything  between, 
and  writing  resulted  in  his  sending  accepted  contributions  to 
such  respected  publications  as  the  Democratic  Review  and 
George  P.  Morris's  popular  Mirror. 

362 


WALT  WHITMAN  363 

From  1841  to  1850  he  was  more  steadily  using  his  pen. 
He  wrote  some  eighteen  stories  for  the  periodicals  and, 
though  he  worked  in  defiance  of  the  usual  schedule,  made  his 
way  in  journalism  to  the  point  of  becoming  editor  of  the 
Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle.  In  1848  he  moved  in  a  wider  orbit, 
going  down  to  New  Orleans  through  the  Ohio  valley  to  work 
on  the  new  Crescent,  and  coming  back  by  way  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  the  Great  Lakes.  In  1850  he  was  living  with  his 
family  in  Brooklyn.  By  this  time  he  had  done  a  great  deal 
of  reading,  starting  with  "  The  Arabian  Nights  "  and  Scott, 
and  moving  on  by  his  own  choice  through  the  classics.  Always, 
when  he  could,  he  read  alone  and  out  of  doors  ;  but  seldom  has 
man  more  completely  fulfilled  Emerson's  behest  to  compensate 
for  solitude  with  society,  for  he  was  one  of  the  great  comrades 
of  history.  He  found  his  society  in  places  of  his  own  selection 
—  on  the  Broadway  stages,  in  the  Brooklyn  ferryboats,  and 
in  the  gallery  at  the  Italian  opera. 

Here  is  his  own  testimony:  " — the  drivers  —  a  strange, 
natural  quick-eyed  and  wondrous  race  —  (not  only  Rabelais  and 
Cervantes  would  have  gloated  upon  them,  but  Homer  and 
Shakspere  would)  —  how  well  I  remember  them,  and  must 
here  give  a  word  about  them.  .  .  .  They  had  immense  quali 
ties,  largely  animal  —  eating,  drinking,  women  —  great  personal 
pride,  in  their  way  —  perhaps  a  few  slouches  here  and  there, 
but  I  should  have  trusted  the  general  run  of  them,  in  their 
simple  good-will  and  honor,  under  all  circumstances."  And  of 
the  harbor :  "Almost  daily,  later  ('50  to  '60),  I  cross'd  on  the 
boats,  often  up  in  the  pilot-houses  where  I  could  get  a  full 
sweep,  absorbing  shows,  accompaniments,  surroundings."  There 
was  a  time  when  he  affected  fine  clothes,  but  as  he  matured 
his  dress  and  the  dress  of  his  ideas  became  strikingly  informal, 
more  like  that  of  his  comrades. 

Of  the  five  years  before  the  "  Leaves  of  Grass  "  appeared 
too  little  is  known.  At  thirty-one  he  was  a  natural  Bohemian, 
independent  enough  not  even  to  do  the  conventional  Bohemian 


364        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

things  like  drinking  and  smoking,  but  he  had  shown  no 
marked  promise  of  achieving  anything  more  than  his  own 
personal  freedom.  His  writing  and  public  speaking  had  been 
commonplace,  and  his  journalistic  work  respectably  successful. 
Then  in  1855  came  the  evidence  of  an  immensely  expansive 
development,  a  development  so  great  and  so  unusual  that  it 
met  the  fate  of  its  kind,  receiving  from  all  but  a  very  few 
neglect,  derision,  or  contempt.  John  Burroughs  tells  of  the 
staff  of  a  leading  daily  paper  in  New  York,  assembled  on 
Saturday  afternoon  to  be  paid  off,  greeting  the  passages  that 
were  read  aloud  to  them  with  "  peals  upon  peals  of  ironical 
laughter."  Whitman's  family  were  indifferent.  His  brother 
George  said  he  "didn't  read  it  at  all  —  didn't  think  it  worth 
reading  —  fingered  it  a  little.  Mother  thought  as  I  did  .  .  . 
Mother  said  that  if  '  Hiawatha '  was  poetry,  perhaps  Walt's 
was."  Obscure  young  men  like  Thoreau  and  Burroughs  were 
moved  to  early  admiration,  but  their  opinion  counted  for  noth 
ing  with  the  multitude.  Emerson  was  the  single  man  of 
influence  to  "  greet  [Whitman]  at  the  beginning  of  a  great 
career."  The  larger  public  paid  no  attention  to  him ;  the 
smaller,  artistic  public  did  what  they  always  do  to  a  defiantly 
independent  artist.  Whitman  determined  his  own  reception 
when  he  wrote, 

Bearded,  sunburnt,  gray-neck  'd,  forbidding,  I  have  arrived, 

To  be  wrestled  with  as  I  pass  for  the  solid  prizes  of  the  universe, 

For  such  I  afford  whoever  can  persevere  to  wiri  them. 

In  1856,  in  a  new  form  and  with  added  material  but  under 
the  same  title,  there  came  a  second  edition  that  received  more 
attention  and  correspondingly  more  abuse.  His  frank  and 
often  wanton  treatment  of  sex  gave  pause  to  almost  every 
reader,  qualifying  the  approval  of  his  strongest  champions. 
Emerson  wrote  to  Carlyle :  "  One  book,  last  summer,  came 
out  in  New  York,  a  nondescript  monster,  which  yet  had  ter 
rible  eyes  and  buffalo  strength,  and  was  indisputably  American 


WALT  WHITMAN  365 

—  which  I  thought  to  send  you ;  but  the  book  throve  so  badly 
with  the  few  to  whom  I  showed  it,  and  wanted  good  morals 
so  much,  that  I  never  did.  Yet  I  believe  now  again  I  shall." 
In  the  meanwhile  the  ultra-respectable  —  of  the  Jaffrey  Pyncheon 
type  —  were  eager  to  hound  Whitman  and  his  publishers  out 
of  society.  Undoubtedly  the  advertising  given  by  his  enemies 
contributed  no  little  to  the  circulation  of  the  third  and  again 
enlarged  edition  of  1860.  Of  this  between  four  and  five 
thousand  copies  were  sold  in  due  time. 

In  1862,  when  his  brother  George  was  seriously  wounded 
at  Fredericksburg,  Whitman  became  a  hospital  nurse  in 
Washington.  With  his  peculiar  gifts  of  comradeship  and  his 
life-long  acquaintance  with  the  common  man,  he  was  able  to 
give  thousands  of  sufferers  the  kind  of  personal,  affectionate 
attention  that  helped  all,  who  were  not  doomed,  to  fight  their 
way  to  recovery.  From  every  side  has  come  the  testimony  as 
to  his  unique  relationship  with  them.  One  must  be  quoted  : 

Never  shall  I  forget  one  night  when  I  accompanied  him  on  his 
rounds  through  a  hospital,  filled  with  those  wounded  young  Americans 
whose  heroism  he  has  sung  in  deathless  numbers.  There  were  three 
rows  of  cots,  and  each  cot  bore  its  man.  When  he  appeared,  in 
passing  along,  there  was  a  smile  of  affection  and  welcome  on  every 
face,  however  wan,  and  his  presence  seemed  to  light  up  the  place  as 
it  might  be  lit  by  the  presence  of  the  Son  of  Love.  From  cot  to. cot 
they  called  him,  often  in  tremulous  tones  or  in  whispers ;  they  em 
braced  him,  they  touched  his  hand,  they  gazed  at  him.  .  . .  He  did  the 
things  for  them  which  no  nurse  or  doctor  could  do,  and  he  seemed  to 
leave  a  benediction  at  every  cot  as  he  passed  along.  The  lights  had 
gleamed  for  hours  in  the  hospital  that  night  before  he  left  it,  and  as  he 
took  his  way  towards  the  door,  you  could  hear  the  voice  of  many  a 
stricken  hero  calling,  "  Walt,  Walt,  Walt,  come  again  !  come  again  ! " 

The  fruits  in  poetry  from  these  years  of  duress  were  in 
some  ways  the  richest  of  his  lifetime.  They  were  included 
in  the  edition  of  1865  under  the  title  "Drum-Taps."  Here 
were  new  poems  "of  the  body  and  of  the  soul,"  telling  of  his 


366        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

vigils  on  the  field  and  in  the  hospital,  not  shrinking  from  de 
tails  of  horror  and  death ;  and  here  also  were  poems  that  dealt 
with  the  implications  of  the  war  and  of  nationalism  militant. 
"  Drum-Taps  " — the  title  poem  —  and  "  Beat !  Beat !  Drums  !  " 
sound  the  call  to  arms.  "  The  Song  of  the  Banner  at  Daybreak  " 
contrasts  the  patriotism  of  the  philistine  with  the  patriotism  of 
the  idealist.  "  Pioneers  !  O  Pioneers  !  "  sings  of  America  for 
the  world,  with  its  thrillingly  prophetic  fourth  stanza, 

Have  the  elder  races  halted  ? 
Do  they  droop  and  end  their  lesson,  wearied,  over  there  beyond 

the  seas  ? 
We  take  up  the  task  eternal,  and  the  burden,  and  the  lesson, 

Pioneers  !  O  pioneers  ! 

And  "  President  Lincoln's  Burial  Hymn"  ("When  Lilacs  last 
in  the  Door-yard  Bloom 'd  ")  with  "  O  Captain  !  My  Captain  !  " 
are  preeminent  among  the  multitude  of  songs  in  praise  of 
Lincoln.  Whitman  wrote  fairly  in  a  letter :  "  The  book  is 
therefore  unprecedently  sad  (as  these  days  are,  are  they  not  ?), 
but  it  also  has  the  blast  of  the  trumpet  and  the  drum  pounds 
and  whirrs  in  it,  and  then  an  undertone  of  sweetest  comrade 
ship  and  human  love  threads  its  steady  thread  inside  the  chaos 
and  is  heard  at  every  lull  and  interstice  thereof.  Truly  also, 
it  has  clear  notes  of  faith  and  triumph." 

There  were  other  fateful  fruits  of  his  hospital  service.  It  is 
the  salvation  of  the  surgeon  and  the  nurse  that  they  adopt  a 
professional  attitude  toward  their  tasks ;  they  save  individual 
lives  in  their  struggle  to  save  human  life.  But  it  was  the 
essence  of  Whitman's  work  among  the  soldiers  that  he  should 
pour  out  his  compassion  without  stint.  The  drain,  of  energy 
forced  him  more  than  once  to  leave  Washington  for  rest  at 
home,  and  assisting  at  operations  resulted  in  poisonous  con 
tagions.  He  seemed  to  recover  from  these,  only  to  give  way 
in  1873  to  a  consequent  attack  of  paralysis,  and,  though  he 
had  nineteen  years  to  live,  he  was  never  quite  free  from  the 
shadow  of  this  menace. 


WALT  WHITMAN  367 

During  the  latter  years,  however,  public  respect  increased  as 
his  strength  waned.  Popularity  this  self-elected  poet  of  the 
people  never  gained,  but  he  became  a  poets'  poet.  A  Whitman 
vogue  developed  among  the  consciously  literary,  just  as  a 
Browning  vogue  did  in  the  same  decades.  It  is  rather  a  mis 
fortune  than  otherwise  for  any  art  or  artist  to  be  made  the 
subject  of  a  fad,  but  the  growth  of  Whitman's  repute  was  slow 
and  was  rooted  in  the  regard  of  other  artists.  In  the  years 
near  1870  essays  and  reviews  in  England  and  Germany  showed 
how  deeply  "  Leaves  of  Grass  "  impressed  the  small  group  of 
men  who  knew  what  the  essentials  of  poetry  were  and  were 
not  afraid  to  acknowledge  their  great  debt  to  this  strange 
innovator.  The  timid  culture  of  America  at  first  shrank  as 
usual  from  any  native  work  which  was  un- European  in  aspect, 
and  lagged  behind  foreign  indorsement  of  something  freshly 
American  just  as  it  did  in  the  cases  of  Mark  Twain  and 
"Joaquin"  Miller  (see  pp.  293  and  403).  When  it  did  begin 
to  take  Whitman  seriously,  the  heartfelt  admiration  of  Freil- 
igrath  in  Germany  and  of  William  Michael  Rossetti  and  John 
Addington  Symonds  in  England,  the  published  charge  that 
America  was  neglecting  a  great  poet,  and  the  public  offer  of 
assistance  from  English  friends  combined  to  build  up  for 
"  the  good  gray  poet "  a  body  of  support  to  which  the 
belated  interest  of  the  would-be  intellectuals  was  a  negligible 
addition.  From  1881  to  his  death  eleven  years  later  the 
income  from  his  writings  was  sufficient  to  maintain  him  in 
"  decent  poverty." 

In  "Myself  and  Mine"  Whitman  delivered  an  admonition 
in  spite  of  which  he  has  been  discussed  in  a  whole  alcoveful 
of  books  and  in  innumerable  lectures : 

I  call  to  the  world  to  distrust  the  accounts  of  my  friends,  but  listen 

to  my  enemies  —  as  I  myself  do  ; 
I  charge  you,  too,  forever  reject  those  who  would  expound  me  — 

for  I  cannot  expound  myself; 

I  charge  that  there  be  no  theory  nor  school  founded  out  of  me ; 
I  charge  you  to  leave  all  free,  as  I  have  left  all  free. 


368        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  comment  and  the  controversy  which  have  accumulated 
around  his  poems  and  himself  center  about  two  nodal  points : 
one  is  the  relatively  obvious  consideration  of  the  objections  to 
his  poetic  form,  his  subject  matter,  and  his  conduct,  and  the 
other  —  far  more  complex  and  subtle  —  is  the  statement  and 
appraisal  of  his  philosophy  of  life. 

Prejudice  and  ignorance  have  had  altogether  too  much  to  say 
about  Whitman's  versification, — as  they  still  have  in  connection 
with  the  freer  verse  forms  of  the  present  day.  Two  or  three 
simple  facts  should  be  stated  at  the  outset,  by  way  of  clearing 
the  ground.  His  earliest  poetry  was  written  in  conventional  form ; 
the  form  of  " Leaves  of  Grass"  was  the  result  neither  of  laziness 
nor  of  inability  to  deal  with  the  established  measures.  Through 
out  his  work  there  are  recurrent  passages  in  regular  rimed  meter. 
"  O  Captain  !  My  Captain  !  "  (1865),  "  Ethiopia  Saluting  the 
Colors  "  (1870),  and  the  song  of  "  The  Singer  in  the  Prison  " 
(1870)  are  deliberate  resorts  to  the  old  ways.  More  likely  to 
escape  the  attention  are  unlabeled  bits  scattered  through  poems 
in  Whitman's  usual  manner.  The  opening  of  the  "Song  of  the 
Broad- Axe  "  is  in  eight  measures  of  trochaic  tetrameter  with  a 
single  rime — it  sounds  like  Emerson's  ;  and  the  first  four  lines 
of  section  14  in  "Walt  Whitman,"  or  the  "Song  of  Myself," 
are  iambic  heptameters,  a  perfect  stanza.  Furthermore,  he  was 
not  utterly  alone  in  his  generation.  Similar  experiments  by  some 
of  his  contemporaries  are  almost  forgotten,  because  there  was  no 
vital  relation  between  form  and  content ;  because  there  was  nothing 
vital  in  them ;  but  Whitman's  rhythms  survive  because  they  are 
as  alive  as  the  wind  in  the  tree  tops. 

He  theorized  out  his  art  in  detail  and  referred  to  his  lines 
as  apparently  "  lawless  at  first  perusal,  although  on  closer 
examination  a  certain  regularity  appears,  like  the  recurrence 
of  lesser  and  larger  waves  on  the  sea-shore,  rolling  in  without 
intermission,  and  fitfully  rising  and  falling."  His  feeling,  — 
and  this  is  the  right  word  for  a  question  of  artistic  form, 
which  should  not  be  determined  primarily  by  the  intellect, 


WALT  WHITMAN  369 

—  his  feeling  was  that  the  idea  which  is  being  expressed 
should  govern  from  moment  to  moment  the  form  into  which 
it  is  cast,  since  any  pattern  imposed  on  a  long  poem  must 
handicap  freedom.  In  many  a  descriptive  passage  there  is  a 
succession  of  nice  adjustments  of  word  and  rhythm  to  the 
thing  being  described.  The  flight  of  birds,  the  play  of  waves, 
the  swaying  of  branches,  the  thousandfold  variations  of  motion, 
are  easy  to  reproduce  and  easy  to  perceive,  but  Whitman  went 
far  beyond  these  to  the  innate  suggestions  of  things  and  of 
ideas.  At  the  same  time  —  not  to  be  occupied  in  a  search  for 
variety  which  becomes  merely  chaos — he  adopted  a  succession  of 
pattern  rhythms,  taking  a  simple,  free  measure  and  modifying  it 
in  the  reiterative  form  frequently  used  by  Emerson  and  common 
to  "  Hiawatha."  There  was  some  acumen  in  Mrs.  Whitman's 
comparison,  for  Longfellow's  assumption  of  "  frequent  repeti 
tions  "  was  a  reverting  to  the  parallelism  that  prevails  in  most  folk 
poetry,  the  same  parallelism  which  is  the  warp  of  Whitman's 
patterns.  Whitman  was  just  as  conscious  in  his  choice  of  dic 
tion  as  in  his  selection  of  measures.  Poetry,  he  agreed  with 
Wordsworth,  was  choked  with  outworn  phrases ;  the  language 
of  the  people  should  be  the  source  of  a  poetic  tongue.  From 
this  he  could  evolve  a  "  perfectly  clear,  plate-glassy  style." 

In  execution  he  was,  of  course,  uneven.  He  wrote  scores 
upon  scores  of  passages  that  were  full  of  splendor,  of  majesty, 
of  rugged  strength,  of  tender  loveliness.  In  general  it  is  true 
that  the  lines  which  deal  with  definite  aspects  of  natural  and 
physical  beauty  are  most  effective  —  lines  of  which  "Out  of 
the  Cradle  Endlessly  Rocking"  are  the  purest  type ;  but  many 
of  the  poems  and  sections  in  which  concrete  imagery  is  sum 
moned  to  the  explication  of  a  general  idea  are  often  finely 
successful  —  as  in  his  stanzas  on  the  poet,  or  on  himself, 
"the  divine  average,"  for  example: 

My  foothold  is  tenon 'd  and  mortis'd  in  granite ; 
I  laugh  at  what  you  call  dissolution ; 
And  I  know  the  amplitude  of  time. 


3/0        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

To  the  hostile  critic  he  offered  an  abundance  of  lines  for 
unfriendly  quotation,  as  almost  every  prolific  poet  has  done. 
Furthermore,  he  opened  to  attack  all  the  series  of  "  catalogue," 
or  "  inventory,"  passages,  in  which  he  abandoned  the  artistic 
habit  of  selective  suggestion  and  overwhelmed  the  reader  with 
an  avalanche  of  detail.  It  is  not  necessary  to  defend  these 
vagaries  or  excesses ;  they  are  obvious  eccentricities  in  Whit 
man's  workmanship,  as  are  also  the  wanton  barbarisms  of 
wording  into  which  he  occasionally  lapsed.  There  are  good 
English  equivalents  for  omnes  and  aliens  and  do  Ice  and  rhumt, 
and  better  ones  than  promulge,  philosophy  and  imperturbe. 

The  most  violent  objections  launched  at  Whitman  were 
based  on  his  unprecedented  frankness  in  matters  of  sex.  It 
was  the  habit  of  the  Victorian  period,  whether  in  England  or 
in  America,  to  shroud  in  an  unwholesome  silence  the  im 
pulse  to  beget  life  and  the  facts  surrounding  it  as  if  they 
were  shameful  matters.  In  consequence  a  central  element  in 
social  and  individual  experience  tended  to  become  a  subject 
of  morbid  curiosity  to  young  people  and  one  of  furtive  self- 
indulgence  to  adults.  This  bred  vicious  ignorance,  distorted 
half-knowledge,  and,  among  other  things,  hysterical  protesta 
tions  at  any  open  violation  of  the  code  in  action  or  in  speech. 
People  seemed  to  feel  that  they  were  vindicating  their  own 
probity  by  the  voluminousness  of  their  invective.  So  Whitman 
was  made  a  scapegoat,  just  as  Byron  was  at  an  earlier  date ; 
and  the  merits  of  the  controversies  are  obscured  by  the  fact 
that  however  much  in  error  the  poets  may  have  been,  their 
accusers  were  hardly  less  in  the  wrong.  Out  of  the  babel  of 
discussion  one  clearest  note  emerged  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
from  an  Englishwoman  to  W.  M.  Rossetti,  who  had  lent 
her  "  Leaves  of  Grass  "  : 

I  rejoice  to  have  read  these  poems ;  and  if  I  or  any  true  woman 
feel  that,  certainly  men  may  hold  their  peace  about  them.  You  will 
understand  that  I  still  think  that  instinct  of  silence  I  spoke  of  a  right 
and  beautiful  thing ;  and  that  it  is  only  lovers  and  poets  (perhaps 


WALT  WHITMAN  371 

only  lovers  and  this  poet)  who  may  say  what  they  will  —  the  lover  to 
his  own,  the  poet  to  all  because  all  are  in  a  sense  his  own.  Shame  is 
like  a  very  flexible  veil  that  takes  faithfully  the  shape  of  what  it 
covers  —  lovely  when  it  hides  a  lovely  thing,  ugly  when  it  hides  an 
ugly  one.  There  is  not  any  fear  that  the  freedom  of  such  impassioned 
words  will  destroy  the  sweet  shame,  the  happy  silence,  that  enfold 
and  brood  over  the  secrets  of  love  in  a  woman's  heart. 

This  single  judgment  naturally  cannot  serve  as  a  universal 
ultimatum,  but  it  should  serve  as  a  warning  for  those  who 
jump  to  the  conclusion  that  only  one  mood  is  possible  for  the 
writer  or  reader  of  such  passages.  Those  who  are  disturbed 
by  them  should  be  willing  not  to  read  the  few  score  lines  that 
are  responsible  for  all  the  turmoil. 

The  only  other  charge  against  Whitman  worth  mentioning 
—  the  complaint  at  his  "  colossal  egotism  " — is  a  subject  more 
for  interpretation  than  for  defense.  Properly  understood,  it 
leads  far  toward  an  understanding  of  the  whole  man.  In  the 
first  place,  if  all  his  "IV  should  be  taken  literally  they  would 
amount  to  no  more  than  an  unusual  frankness  of  artistic 
expression.  Every  creative  artist  is  of  necessity  an  egotist. 
He  is  bound  to  believe  in  the  special  significance  of  what  he 
is  privileged  to  utter  in  words  or  tones  or  lines  and  colors. 
The  whole  anthology  of  poems  on  the  poet  and  his  work  is  a 
catalogue  of  supreme  egotisms,  even  though  most  of  them  are 
written  in  the  third  person  rather  than  the  first.  Whitman  cast 
aside  the  regular  locution  without  apology.  But,  as  a  further 
caution  to  the  supersensitive,  his  "IV  do  not  always  mean 
the  same  thing.  Sometimes  they  are  explicitly  personal,  as  in, 

I,  now,  thirty-six  years  old,  in  perfect  health,  begin, 
Hoping  to  cease  not  till  death. 

Sometimes  they  stand  just  as  explicitly  for  "  the  average  man." 
This  he  explained  in  the  preface  to  the  1876  edition:  "I 
meant  *  Leaves  of  Grass/  as  published,  to  be  the  poem  of 
average  Identity  (of  yours,  whoever  you  are,  now  reading  these 


372        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

lines).  ...  To  sing  the  Song  of  that  law  of  average  Identity, 
and  of  Yourself,  consistently  with  the  divine  law  of  the  uni 
versal,  is  a  main  purpose  of  these  '  Leaves.'  " 

Finally,  the  egotistic  "  I  "  is  often  a  token  of  the  religious 
mysticism  at  the  back  of  his  faith.  Without  an  understanding 
of  this  factor  in  Whitman  he  cannot  be  known.  "  Place  your 
self,"  said  William  James  in  his  lecture  on  Bergson,  "at  the 
center  of  a  man's  philosophic  vision  and  you  understand  at 
once  all  the  different  things  it  makes  him  write  or  say.  But 
keep  outside,  use  your  post-mortem  method,  try  to  build  the 
philosophy  up  out  of  the  single  phrases,  taking  first  one  and 
then  another,  and  seeking  to  make  them  fit,  and  of  course 
you  fail.  You  crawl  over  the  thing  like  a  myopic  ant  over  a 
building,  tumbling  into  every  microscopic  crack  or  fissure, 
finding  nothing  but  inconsistencies,  and  never  suspecting  that 
a  centre  exists."  It  is  James  again  who  gives  the  exact  cue 
to  Whitman's  mysticism,  this  time  in  a  chapter  of  "  Varieties 
of  Religious  Experience."  It  is  the  experience  of  the  mystic, 
he  explains,  to  arrive  in  inspired  moments  at  a  height  from 
which  all  truth  seems  to  be  divinely  revealed.  This  revelation 
is  not  a  flashlight  perception  of  some  single  aspect  of  life, 
but  a  sense  of  the  entire  scheme  of  creation  and  a  conviction 
that  the  truth  has  been  imparted  direct  from  God.  It  is  clear, 
like  the  view  from  a  mountain  top,  but,  like  such  a  view,  it  is 
incapable  of  adequate  expression  in  words, —  "an  intuition," 
and  now  the  words  are  Whitman's,  "  of  the  absolute  balance, 
in  time  and  space,  of  the  whole  of  this  multifarious,  mad  chaos 
of  fraud,  frivolity,  hoggishness  —  this  revel  of  fools,  and  in 
credible  make-believe  and  general  unsettledness,  we  call  the 
world  \  a  soul-sight  of  that  divine  clue  and  unseen  thread 
which  holds  the  whole  congeries  of  things,  all  history  and  time, 
and  all  events,  however  trivial,  however  momentous,  like  a 
leashed  dog  in  the  hand  of  the  hunter."  It  was  the  fashion 
of  speech  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  when  thus  inspired,  to 
preface  their  declarations  with  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord "  ; 


WALT  WHITMAN  373 

Whitman,  with  his  simpler,  "  I  say"  or  "  I  tell  you,"  regarded 
himself  no  less  as  mouthpiece  of  the  Most  High.  The  vision 
made  him  certain  of  an  underlying  unity  in  all  life  and  of 
the  coming  supremacy  of  a  law  of  love ;  it  made  him  equally 
certain  of  the  mistakenness  of  human  conditions  and  unquali 
fiedly  direct  in  his  uttered  verdicts. 

This  sense  of  the  wholeness  of  life  —  a  transcendental  doc 
trine  —  made  all  the  parts  deeply  significant  to  him  who  could 
perceive  their  meaning.  The  same  mystic  consciousness  is 
beneath  all  these  passages,  and  all  the  others  like  them  : 

I  celebrate  myself, 

And  what  I  assume  you  shall  assume, 

For  every  atom  belonging  to  me  as  good  belongs  to  you. 

The  wild  gander  leads  his  flock  through  the  cool  night ; 
Ya-honk  !  he  says,  and  sounds  it  down  to  me  like  an  invitation ; 
(The  pert  may  suppose  it  meaningless,  but  I  listen  close ; 
I  find  its  purpose  and  place  up  there  toward  the  wintry  sky.) 

I  believe  a  leaf  of  grass  no  less  than  the  journey-work  of  the  stars, 
And  the  pismire  is  equally  perfect,  and  a  grain  of  sand,  and  the  egg 

of  the  wren, 

And  the  tree-toad  is  a  chef-d'oeuvre  for  the  highest, 
And  the  running  blackberry  would  adorn  the  parlors  of  heaven, 
.  And  the  narrowest  hinge  in  my  hand  puts  to  scorn  all  machinery, 
And  the  cow  crunching  with  depress'd  head  surpasses  any  statue, 
And  a  mouse  is  miracle  enough  to  stagger  sextillions  of  infidels, 
And  I  could  come  every  afternoon  of  my  life  to  look  at  the  farmer's 
girl  boiling  her  iron  tea-kettle  and  baking  short-cake. 

It  explains,  too,  the  otherwise  bewildering  excesses  of  the 
"  inventory  "  passages,  which,  for  all  their  apparent  unrelated- 
ness,  are  always  brought  up  with  a  unifying,  inclusive  turn. 
In  the  universe,  then,  —  and  Whitman  thought  of  the  word 
in  its  literal  sense  of  a  great  and  single  design,  —  man  was 
the  supreme  fact  to  whom  all  its  objects  "  continually  con 
verge  "  \  as  man  was  God-created,  Whitman  was  no  respecter 


374        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  persons,  but  a  lover  of  the  common  folk,  in  whom  the 
destiny  of  human-kind  resided  more  than  in  presidents  or 
kings.  And  since  he  considered  the  race  in  the  light  of  ages 
upon  ages,  the  generating  of  life  seemed  to  him  a  matter  of 
holiest  import. 

For  the  carrying  out  of  such  a  design  the  only  fit  vehicle 
is  the  purest  sort  of  democracy ;  all  other  working  bases  of 
human  association  are  only  temporary  obstacles  to  the  course 
of  things ;  and  as  Whitman  saw  the  nearest  approach  to  the 
right  social  order  in  his  own  country,  he  was  an  American  by 
conviction  as  well  as  by  the  accident  of  place.  Governments, 
he  felt,  were  necessary  conveniences,  and  so-called  rulers  were 
servants  of  the  public  from  whom  their  powers  were  derived. 
The  greatest  driving  power  in  life  was  public  opinion,  and 
the  greatest  potential  molder  of  public  opinion  was  the  bard, 
seer,  or  poet.  This  poet  was  to  be  not  a  reformer  but  a 
preacher  of  a  new  gospel ;  he  was,  in  fact,  to  be  infinitely 
patient  in  face  of  "  meanness  and  agony  without  end  "  while  he 
invoked  the  principles  which  would  one  day  put  them  to  rout. 

I  hear  it  was  charged  against  me  that  I  sought  to  destroy  institutions; 

But  really  I  am  neither  for  nor  against  institutions ; 

(What  indeed  have  I  in  common  with  them  ?  —  Or  what  with  the 

destruction  of  them  ? ) 
Only  I  will  establish  in  the  Mannahatta,  and  in  every  city  of  These 

States,  inland  and  seaboard, 
And  in  the  fields  and  woods,  and  above  every  keel,  little  or  large, 

that  dents  the  water, 

Without  edifices,  or  rules,  or  trustees,  or  any  argument, 
The  institution  of  the  dear  love  of  comrades. 

To  the  bard  he  attributed  knowledge  of  science  and  history, 
—  the  learning  of  the  broadly  educated  man,  —  but,  beyond 
that,  wisdom  : 

He  bestows  on  every  object  or  quality  its  fit  proportion,  neither  more 

nor  less.  .  .  . 
He  is  no  arguer,  he  is  judgment  —  (Nature  accepts  him  absolutely ; ) 


WALT  WHITMAN  375 

He  judges  not  as  the  judge  judges,  but  as  the  sun  falling  round  a 

helpless  thing ; 
As  he  sees  farthest,  he  has  the  most  faith. 

He  is  no  writer  of  "  poems  distilled  from  foreign  poems  "  ; 
he  is  the  propounder  of 

the  idea  of  free  and  perfect  individuals, 
For  that  idea  the  bard  walks  in  advance,  leader  of  leaders, 
The  attitude  of  him  cheers  up  slaves  and  horrifies  foreign  despots. 

In  America,  whose  "veins  are  filled  with  poetical  stuff," 
Whitman  was  certain  not  only  of  the  need  for  poets  but  of 
their  ultimate  power ;  for  in  America,  the  cradle  of  the  race, 
and  through  the  bards  God's  will  was  to  be  done. 

Whitman  arrived  at  the  acme  of  self-reliance.  With  the 
mystic's  sense  of  revealed  truth  at  hand,  and  a  devout  con 
viction  that  it  was  the  poet's  duty  —  his  duty  —  to  show  men 
a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  he  went  on  his  way  with  per 
fect  faith.  Emerson  wrote  of  self-reliance  in  general,  "  Adhere 
to  your  act,  and  congratulate  yourself  if  you  have  done  some 
thing  strange  and  extravagant,  and  broken  the  monotony  of  a 
decorous  age."  Yet  he  remonstrated  with  Whitman,  and  in 
the  attempt  to  modify  his  extravagance  used  arguments  which 
were  unanswerable.  Nevertheless,  said  the  younger  poet,  "  I 
felt  down  in  my  soul  the  clear  and  unmistakable  conviction  to 
disobey  all,  and  pursue  my  own  way";  in  doing  which  he 
bettered  Emerson's  instructions  by  'disregarding  his  advice. 
Hostile  or  brutal  criticism  left  him  quite  unruffled.  It  ree'n- 
forced  him  in  his  conclusions  and  cheered  him  with  the 
thought  that  they  were  receiving  serious  attention.  After 
Swinburne's  fiercest  attack  says  Burroughs :  "I  could  not 
discover  either  in  word  or  look  that  he  was  disturbed  a  par 
ticle  by  it.  He  spoke  as  kindly  of  Swinburne  as  ever.  If  he 
was  pained  at  all,  it  was  on  Swinburne's  account  and  not  on 
his  own.  It  was  a  sad  spectacle  to  see  a  man  retreat  upon 
himself  as  Swinburne  had  done." 


3/6        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

His  daily  preoccupation  with  "  superior  beings  and  eternal 
interests"  gave  him  some  of  the  elevations  and  some  of  the  con 
tempts  of  the  Puritan  fathers.  It  leads  far  to  think  of  Whitman 
as  a  Puritan  stripped  of  his  dogma.  It  accounts  for  his  daily 
absorption  in  things  of  religion,  for  his  democratic  zeal,  his  dis 
regard  for  the  adornments  of  life,  even  for  his  subordination  of 
the  sentiment  of  love  to  the  perpetuation  of  the  race.  In  these 
respects  he  dwelt  on  the  broad  and  permanent  factors  in  human 
life,  regarding  the  finite  and  personal  only  as  he  saw  them  in 
the  midst  of  all  time  and  space.  And  this  leads  to  the  man  in 
his  relation  to  science,  with  which  Puritan  dogma  was  at  odds. 
Whitman  was  not  in  the  usual  sense  a  "nature  poet."  The 
beauties  of  nature  exerted  little  appeal  on  him.  He  had  nothing 
to  say  in  detached  observations  on  the  primrose,  or  the  moun 
tain  tops,  or  the  sunset.  But  nature  was,  next  to  his  own  soul, 
the  source  of  deepest  truth  to  him,  a  truth  which  science  in 
his  own  day  was  making  splendidly  clear.  The  dependence  of 
biological  science  on  the  material  universe  did  not  shake  his 
faith  in  immortality.  He  simply  took  what  knowledge  science 
could  contribute  and  understood  it  in  the  light  of  his  faith, 
which  transcended  any  science.  Among  modern  poets  he  was 
one  of  the  earliest  to  chant  the  paean  of  creative  evolution. 

Rise  after  rise  bow  the  phantoms  behind  me, 

Afar  down  I  see  the  huge  first  Nothing  —  I  know  I  was  even  there, 
I  waited  unseen  and  always,  and  slept  through  the  lethargic  mist, 
And  took  my  time,  and  took  no  hurt  from  the  fetid  carbon. 

Before  I  was  born  out  of  my  mother,  generations  guided  me, 

My  embryo  has  never  been  torpid  —  nothing  could  overlay  it. 

For  it  the  nebula  cohered  to  an  orb, 

The  long,  slow  strata  piled  to  rest  it  in, 

Vast  vegetables  gave  it  sustenance, 

Monstrous  sauroids  transported  it  in  their  mouths,  and  deposited  it 

with  care. 

All  forces  have  been  steadily  employed  to  complete  and  delight  me, 
Now  I  stand  on  this  spot  with  my  Soul. 


WALT  WHITMAN  377 

lit  is  impossible,  as  all  critics  agree,  to  compass  Whitman 
in  a  book  or  essay  or  compress  him  into  a  summary.  He  was 
an  immensely  expansive  personality  whose  writings  are  as 
broad  as  life  itself.  It  is  almost  equally  impossible  for  one 
who  has  really  read  over  and  through  and  under  his  poems 
to  speak  of  him  in  measured  terms.  The  world  is  coming 
round  to  Whitman  much  faster  than  he  expected.  Every 
great  step  in  human  progress  is  a  step  in  the  direction  he 
was  pointing.  His  larger  faith,  whether  so  recognized  or  not, 
is  yearly  the  faith  of  more  and  more  thinking  people.  And 
in  an  immediate  way  his  influence  on  the  generation  of  living 
poets  is  incomparably  great\ 

BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Author 

WALT  WHITMAN.  Works.  Selections  from  the  prose  and  poetry  of 
Whitman.  O.  L.  Tsjggs,  editor.  1902.  10  vols.  The  best  single 
volumes  are  Leaves  of  (3B&s,  Complete  Poetical  Works,  and  Com 
plete  Prose  Works.  (Small,  Maynard.)  1897  and  1898.  During 
Whitman's  lifetime  ten  successive  enlarged  editions  of  Leaves  of 
Grass  were  published:  in  1855,  1856,  1860,  1867,  1871,  1876,  1881 
(Boston),  1 88 1  (Philadelphia),  1888,  1889,  1891.  Other  titles  are  as 
follows:  *Drum-Taps,  1865;  *Passage  to  India,  1871;  *Demo- 
cratic  Vistas,  1871;  Memoranda  during  the  War,  1875;  Specimen 
Days  and  Collect,  1882,  1883;  Two  Rivulets,  1876;  *November 
Boughs,  1888  ;  *Good-bye,  My  Fancy,  1891.  (Titles  with  the  mark  * 
were  included  as  new  sections  in  the  next  forthcoming  edition  of 
Leaves  of  Grass.) 

Bibliographies 

Selections  from  Whitman.    O.  L.  Triggs,  editor.    1898. 

Library  of  Literary  Criticism  of  English  and  American  Authors, 
Vol.  VIII,  pp.  129-153.  C.  W.  Moulton,  editor.  1905.  Cambridge 
History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  II,  pp.  551-581. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

There  is  no  complete  standard  biography.  The  best  single  volume 

surveys  are  Walt  Whitman,  by  G.  R.  Carpenter,  1909  (E.M.L. 

Ser.) ;  and  Walt  Whitman :  his  Life  and  Works,  by  Bliss  Perry, 

1906  (A.M.L.  Ser.}. 
BINNS,  H.  B.  A  Life  of  Walt  Whitman.  1905. 


378        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

BOYNTON,  P.  H.    Whitman's  Idea  of  the  State.   New  Republic,  Vol. 

VII,  p.  139- 

BROOKS,  VAN  WYCK.    America's  Coming  of  Age.    1915. 
BURROUGHS,  JOHN.  Notes  on  Walt  Whitman  as  Poet  and  Person.  1867. 
BURROUGHS,  JOHN.    Whitman:  a  Study.   1896. 
CARPENTER,  EDWARD.    Days  with  Walt  Whitman.   1906. 
CHAPMAN,  J.  J.    Emerson  and  Other  Essays.    1892. 
DART,  W.  K.    Walt  WThitman  in  New  Orleans.   Pub.  Louisiana  Hist. 

Soc.,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  97-112. 

ELLIOT,  C.  N.   Walt  Whitman  as  Man,  Poet,  and  Friend.    1915. 
FERGUSON,  J.  D.    American  Literature  in  Spain.    1916. 
FOERSTER,  NORMAN.    Whitman  as  Poet  of  Nature.   Pub.  Mod.  Lang. 

Assoc.  of  Amer.,  Vol.  XXI  (N.  S.),  pp.  736-758. 
GOULD,  E.  P.    Anne  Gilchrist  and  \Valt  W'hitman.    1900. 
GUMMERE,  F.  B.    Democracy  and  Poetry.    1911. 
HOLLOWAY,  EMORY.    Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature, 

Vol.  II,  Bk.  II,  chap.  i. 
JONES,  P.  M.    Influence  of  Whitman  on  the  Origin  of  "  Vers  Libre." 

Modern  Language  Review,  Vol.  XI,  p.  186. 

JONES,  P.  M.  \Vhitman  in  France.  Modern  Language  Review,  Vol.  X,  p.  i . 
LANIER,  SIDNEY.   The  English  Novel.   1883. 
LEE,  G.  S.    Order  for  the  Next  Poet.    Putnam's  Magazine,  Vol.  I, 

p.  697  ;  Vol.  II,  p.  99. 

MACPHAIL,  ANDREW.   Walt  Whitman,  in  Essays  in  Puritanism.    1905. 
MORE,  P.  E.  Walt  Whitman,  in  Shelburne  Essays.  Fourth  Series.  1906. 
PATTEE,  F.  L.    American  Literature  since  1870,  chap.  ix.   1915. 
PERRY,  BLISS.    Walt  Whitman :  his  Life  and  Work.    1906  and  1908. 
SANTAYANA,  GEORGE.    Walt  Whitman,  in  Interpretations  of  Poetry 

and  Religion.    1900. 

STEDMAN,  E.  C.    Poets  of  America.    1885. 
STEVENSON,  R.  L.    Familiar  Studies  of  Men  and  Books.    1882. 
SWINBURNE,  A.  C.    Studies  in  Prose  and  Poetry.   1894. 
TRAUBEL,  H.  L.    In  re  Walt  Whitman.   1893. 
TRAUBEL,  H.  L.  With  Walt  Whitman  in  Camden,  p.  473.  1906.  (This 

is  Vol.  I  of  Traubel's  diary  notes  made  during  Whitman's  life. 

Vol.  II,   1908;   Vol.  Ill,  1914.    Vol.  IV  is  announced  for  early 

publication,  and  the  whole  work,  when  completed,  will  fill  eight 

or  ten  volumes.) 
WALLING,  W.  E.   Whitman  and  Traubel.    1916. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Select  and   discuss  poems    and    stanzas  in   Whitman  which  are 
written  in  conventional  rhythms. 

Select  and  discuss  passages  in  which  he  employs  changing  rhythms 
adjusted  to  the  persons  or  objects  in  hand. 


WALT  WHITMAN  379 

Study  Whitman's  diction  with  reference  to  his  use  of  the  average 
man's  speech  and  to  his  occasional  use  of  foreign  words,  corrupted 
words  (whether  foreign  or  English),  and  coined  words. 

List  and  discuss  poems  which  are  clearly  autobiographical.  Does 
this  list  include  any  personal  lyrics  ? 

List  and  discuss  poems  written  in  the  first  person  but  intended 
as  poems  of  "  the  divine  average." 

Select  and  discuss  poems  and  passages  on  the  theme  of  com 
panionship. 

Select  and  discuss  poems  and  passages  which  express  his  sense  of 
universal  law. 

Read  his  longer  poems  for  passages  on  the  subject  of  the  state, 
the  rulers,  and  public  opinion. 

Read  and  discuss  his  utterances  on  poetry  and  the  poet,  noting 
especially  "  The  Song  of  the  Banner  at  Daybreak  "  and  "  As  I  sat 
by  Blue  Ontario's  Shore." 

Read  and  discuss  Whitman's  utterances  on  war  and  nationalism. 
Read  for  an  estimate  of  his  feeling  for  the  beauties  of  nature. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN 

There  is  a  valid  parallel  between  the  beginnings  of  American 
literature  and  the  early  stages  of  its  development  in  the  West, 
for  in  both  instances  it  followed  on  the  wave  of  pioneer  settle 
ment.  The  earliest  writers  came  from  the  East  and  were  only 
temporary  sojourners  in  the  new  country,  Bret  Harte  and  Mark 
Twain  corresponding  in  different  degrees  to  colonists  like  John 
Smith  and  Nathaniel  Ward.  A  more  permanent  allegiance 
developed  in  a  second  group  who  lived  out  their  lives  in  the 
land  of  their  adoption,  such,  for  example,  as  Joaquin  Miller 
and  Increase  Mather.  And  the  final  stage  is  fulfilled  by  those 
whose  whole  lives  belonged  to  the  maturing  frontier,  like  most 
of  the  second  generation.  The  parallel  exists  too  in  the  fact 
that  the  early  authors  wrote  usually  with  one  eye  on  the  older 
community,  eager  for  approval  and  half  resentful  of  criticism 
—  an  attitude  of  West  toward  East  which  still  survives  in  the 
timider  element  along  the  chain  from  London  to  New  York 
to  Chicago  to  San  Francisco  to  Honolulu.  The  obvious  con 
trasts  between  the  motives  for  settlement,  the  character  of  the 
settlers,  and  the  nature  of  their  writings  only  serve  to  emphasize 
the  underlying  similarities.  Manners  change,  but  human  nature 
changes  so  much  more  slowly  that  it  seems  almost  a  constant. 

Bret  Harte  (1839-1902)  is  the  outstanding  writer  who  lived 
for  a  while  in  the  far  West,  turned  it  to  literary  account,  failed 
in  any  deep  sense  either  to  sympathize  with  its  spirit  or  to 
represent  it,  and  left  it  permanently  and  with  apparent  relief. 
He  was  an  Eastern  town-bred  boy  of  cultured  parentage  who 
aspired  to  become  a  poet.  At  eighteen  he  went  to  California 
where,  before  he  was  twenty-one,  he  saw  life  as  tutor,  express 

380 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  381 

messenger,  typesetter,  teacher,  and  drug  clerk.  During  half 
of  the  next  fourteen  years  in  San  Francisco  he  was  secretary 
of  the  California  mint,  and  during  all  of  them  he  was  primarily 
interested  in  authorship.  He  wrote  for  periodicals  East  and 
West  and  had  a  manuscript  accepted  by  the  Atlantic  as  early 
as  1863.  With  the  founding  of  the  Overland  Monthly  in  1868 
he  became  editor,  and  with  the  publication  of  "  The  Luck  of 
Roaring  Camp  "  in  the  second  number  he  jumped  into  fabu 
lous  popularity.  In  1871  he  went  to  New  York,  and  in  1878 
he  went  abroad,  where  he  lived  till  his  death  in  complete 
estrangement  from  all  his  old  associates.  These  latter  facts 
deserve  mention  only  as  they  stress  the  lightness  of  his  con 
tact  with  the  West.  He  found  fresh  material  there  which  he 
used  with  great  narrative  adroitness,  contributing  definitely  to 
the  progress  of  short-story  technique.  But  his  tales  are  deftly 
melodramatic,  built  on  a  sort  of  paradox  formula,  and  greatly 
indebted  in  detail  and  mannerisms  to  the  example  of  Charles 
Dickens.  Harte  was  beyond  any  question  a  good  craftsman ; 
his  wares  would  still  find  a  ready  magazine  market,  for  they 
would  be  modern  in  execution,  but  there  is  no  soul  in  what 
he  wrote.  He  was  a  reporter  with  a  gift  for  rapid-moving, 
close-knit  narrative.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  facts,  but 
very  little  concerned  with  the  truth.  He  wrote  some  clever 
stories,  but  he  seems  like  a  trinket  shop  at  the  foot  of  Pike's 
Peak  as  Mark  Twain  looms  above  him. 

The  life  of  Mark  Twain  (Samuel  Langhorne  Clemens, 
1835-1910)  probably  touches  American  life  at  more  points 
than  that  of  any  other  author.  The  first  half  has  been  very 
definitely  written  into  his  books,  and  the  whole  has  been  told 
with  his  help  in  one  of  the  best  of  American  biographies.1 
It  involves  indirectly  his  Virginia  parentage  and  the  pioneer 
experiences  of  his  father  and  mother  in  the  Tennessee  moun 
tains  ;  his  own  residence  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  on  both 
seacoasts ;  his  activities  as  printer,  river-pilot,  journalist,  lecturer, 

1  "  Mark  Twain,  a  Biography,"  by  Albert  Bigelow  Paine.    3  vols.    1912. 


382        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

and  publisher ;  his  friendships  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men 
from  California  miners  to  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe;  the  joys 
and  sorrows  of  a  beautiful  family  life  ;  the  making  and  losing  of 
several  fortunes  ;  and  an  old  age  crowded  with  honors  and  popu 
larity,  yet  overshadowed  by  a  tragic  cloud  of  doubts  and  griefs. 

His  parents,  who  had  been  dissatisfied  with  their  attempted 
settlement  in  a  Tennessee  mountain  town,  left  it  in  1835  with 
four  children  for  Florida,  Missouri,  allured  to  the  move  by  the 
optimism  of  a  relative,  as  it  worked  on  their  own  pioneer  rest 
lessness.  The  conditions  they  left  are  vividly  described  in  the 
first  eleven  chapters  of  "  The  Gilded  Age."  In  a  little  town  of 
twenty-one  dwellings  the  boy  was  born  in  the  autumn  of  1835. 
When  he  was  four  years  old  the  family  moved  to  Hannibal, 
a  river  town.  Sam  Clemens  was  an  irresponsible,  dreamy, 
rather  fragile  child,  a  problem  to  parents  and  teachers  and 
given  to  associating  with  the  boys  presented  in  ''Tom  Sawyer," 
the  most  notable  of  whom  was  Tom  Blankenship,  the  original 
of  "  Huckleberry  Finn."  His  father,  consistently  unsuccessful, 
was  made  justice  of  the  peace  and  finally  was  elected  clerk  of 
the  circuit  court,  only  to  die  in  1847  from  exposure  in  the 
campaign.  For  the  next  ten  years  young  Clemens  was  engaged 
in  the  printing  business,  first  under  his  brother  Orion  on  a  Han 
nibal  journal  (see  "  My  First  Literary  Venture,"  in  "  Sketches, 
New  and  Old,"  pp.  110-114) ;  then  during  fifteen  months  in 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington,  and  next  in  Keokuk, 
Illinois,  and  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

Finally,  in  April,  1857,  he  began  to  "learn  the  river"  from 
Horace  Bixby,  pilot  of  the  Paul  Jones.  His  experience  on 
the  river,  the  basis  for  "  Life  on  the  Mississippi,"  was  early 
marked  by  the  tragic  destruction  of  the  Pennsylvania,  on 
which  his  younger  brother,  Henry,  suffered  a  fearful  death, 
the  first  of  the  personal  sorrows  which  were  deeply  scored 
into  his  life.  His  career  as  pilot  was  ended  by  the  closing  of 
river  traffic  in  the  spring  of  1861,  but  it  gave  him,  with  many 
other  bequests,  his  pen  name,  derived  from  one  of  the  calls 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  383 

used  in  sounding  the  depth  of  the  ever-shifting  channel. 
Piloting  during  war  times  did  not  appeal  to  him.  "  I  am  not 
very  anxious  to  get  up  into  a  glass  perch  and  be  shot  at  by 
either  side.  I  '11  go  home  and  reflect  on  the  matter."  And 
after  reflection  he  chose  the  better  part  of  valor  and  stayed  on 
land.  In  the  next  three  months  there  followed  his  amusing 
adventures  recorded  in  "  The  Private  History  of  a  Campaign 
that  Failed"  (see  "The  American  Claimant,"  pp.  243-265); 
and  in  July,  1861,  he  went  with  his  brother  Orion  to  serve 
with  J.  W.  Nye,  territorial  governor  of  Nevada.  The  life  of 
the  next  months  went  into  "Roughing  It,"  first  at  Carson  City, 
then  at  Humboldt,  until,  in  August,  1862,  he  began  his  journal 
istic  work  in  California  on  The  Virginia  City  Enterprise.  At 
twenty-five  he  had  secured  his  first  view  of  the  country  from 
coast  to  coast  and  all  down  the  central  artery,  he  had  been 
schooled  in  the  exacting  discipline  of  the  printer's  trade  (see 
pp.  47,  48)  and  in  the  still  more  rigorous  responsibilities  of 
river  piloting,  and  he  had  begun  to  write  for  a  living.  Two 
more  steps  remained  in  the  growth  of  his  acquaintance  with 
the  external  world,  and  these  followed  after  five  years  of  shift 
ing  fortunes  on  California  newspapers.  The  first  was  his  trip  to 
Honolulu  as  correspondent  for  the  Sacramento  Union,  on  the 
new  steamer  Ajax,  and  the  second,  in  1867,  was  his  trip 
to  the  Holy  Land  on  the  steamship  Quaker  City  for  the 
tour  which  was  to  be  immortalized  in  "Innocents  Abroad,"  first 
as  a  series  of  newspaper  letters  and  then  in  book  form. 

With  the  publication  of  "  The  Innocents  "  in  the  summer 
of  1869  Mark  Twain  came  to  the  halfway  point.  Out  of  his 
wide  experience  he  had  developed  the  habits  of  an  observer 
and  he  had  learned  how  to  write.  He  had  earned  a  reputation 
as  a  newspaper  man,  and  he  had  published  his  most  famous 
short  story,  "  The  Jumping  Frog,"  using  his  talent  in  spin 
ning  a  yarn1  after  his  own  fashion.  His  lecturing  had  met 

1  See  his  essay  "  How  to  Tell  a  Story "  in  "  The  Man  that  Corrupted 
Hadleyburg,"  pp.  225-230. 


384        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

with  unqualified  success ;  the  new  book  was  selling  beyond  all 
expectation  —  67,000  copies  in  the  first  year ;  and  he  was 
happily  married  to  Olivia  Langdon,  his  balance  wheel,  his 
severest  critic,  and  the  friend  of  all  his  closest  friends. 

The  story  of  the  rest  of  his  life  is  a  record  of  varied  and 
spectacular  fortunes.  His  home  from  1871  to  1891  was  in 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  where  he  was  a  neighbor  of  Charles 
Dudley  Warner  and  an  intimate  of  the  Reverend  Joseph 
Twitchell  (the  original  of  Harris  in  "A  Tramp  Abroad  "),  and 
where  William  Dean  Howells,  his  friend  of  over  forty  years, 
often  visited  him.  There  was  a  kind  of  lavishness  in  everything 
he  did.  He  built  a  mansion,  made  money  with  ease,  spent  it 
profusely,  and  invested  it  with  the  care-free  optimism  of  Colonel 
Sellers  himself.  New  inventions  fascinated  him  and  made  him 
an  easy  victim  for  the  fluent  promoter,  so  that  what  was  left 
from  his  ventures  with  the  Buffalo  Express  and  the  Webster 
Publishing  Company  went  into  other  enterprises,  of  which 
the  Paige  typesetting  machine  was  the  most  disastrous  for  this 
ex-printer.  After  his  failure  for  a  large  amount,  a  later  friend, 
Henry  H.  Rogers,  took  his  affairs  in  hand  and  by  good 
management  enabled  Mark  Twain  to  meet  all  debts  and 
enjoy  a  very  handsome  income  during  his  later  years. 

The  ups  and  downs  of  business  distracted  him  but  did  not 
baffle  him.  He  traveled  extensively,  living  abroad  during  most 
of  the  decade  between  1891  and  1901.  He  made  cordial  friends 
wherever  he  went,  but  he  was  not  weaned  by  them  away  from 
the  old  cronies  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  Pacific  coast. 
He  accepted  honors  from  Yale  twice  and  from  the  University 
of  Missouri,  and  in  1907  was  the  subject  of  a  four-weeks'  ova 
tion  from  all  England  when  he  went  over  to  receive  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Letters  from  Oxford.  His  opinion  was  sought 
on  public  questions  and  he  was  importuned  for  speeches  on 
every  sort  of  occasion ;  but  his  last  years  were  shadowed  by  a 
succession  of  bereavements.  In  1903  Mrs.  Clemens  died.  Two 
children  died  in  childhood,  a  third  under  tragic  circumstances 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  385 

in  1909,  and  the  surviving  daughter  was  married  and  far  away 
most  of  the  time.  His  chief  personal  solace  was  found  in 
his  friendships  with  several  schoolgirls. 

During  those  years  after  my  wife's  death  I  was  washing  about  on 
a  forlorn  sea  of  banquets  and  speech-making  in  high  and  holy  causes, 
and  these  things  furnished  me  intellectual  cheer  and  entertainment; 
but  they  got  at  my  heart  for  an  evening  only,  then  left  it  dry  and 
dusty.  I  had  reached  the  grandfather  stage  of  life  without  grand 
children,  so  I  began  to  adopt  some. 

He  died  of  angina  pectoris  in  1910. 

Mark  Twain's  reputation  was  built  on  his  humor.  He  came 
to  his  maturity  in  a  fruitful  decade  just  after  the  Civil  War, 
when  a  crop  of  newspaper  men  were  coming  out  with  a  reck 
lessly  fresh,  informal  jocularity  which  was  related  to  the  old 
American  humor,  but  a  great  departure  from  it.  They  were 
all  unconscious  of  making  any  contribution  to  American  litera 
ture.  They  never  could  have  written  books  which  would 
have  won  the  attention  of  Irving's  readers  and  the  perusers 
of  the  old  Annuals  and  the  admirers  of  the  Knickerbocker 
courtliness.  They  wrote  for  the  world  of  Horace  Greeley  and 
the  elder  James  Gordon  Bennett,  caring  nothing  for  beauty  of 
style  or  for  any  kind  of  literary  tradition.  They  wrote  under  odd 
pen  names  like  "John  Phoenix,"  who  preceded  them  by  ten 
years — "  Petroleum  V.  Nasby,"  "  Artemus  Ward,"  "  Orpheus  C. 
Kerr,"  "  Max  Adler,"  and  "  M.  Quad  "  serving  as  fancy  dress 
for  Locke,  Browne,  Newell,  Clark,  and  Lewis.  They  drew  their 
material  from  the  common  people,  as  Lincoln  had  done  with 
all  his  anecdotes,  putting  it  in  the  idiom  of  the  common  people 
and  frequently  distorting  it  into  illiterate  spelling,  as  Lowell  had 
done  in  "The  Biglow  Papers."  This  disturbed  and  shocked  the 
lovers  of  a  refined  literature  —  men  like  Stedman,  for  example, 
who  wrote  to  Bayard  Taylor,  "  The  whole  country,  owing  to 
contagion  of  our  American  newspaper  '  exchange  '  system,  is 
flooded,  deluged,  swamped,  beneath  a  muddy  tide  of  slang, 


386        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

vulgarity,  inartistic  [bathos],  impertinence,  and  buffoonery  that 
is  not  wit."  But  it  was  an  irresistible  tide  that  threw  up  on 
its  waves  something  more  than  froth  or  flotsam,  in  the  shape 
of  a  few  real  treasures  from  the  deep  —  and  the  rarest  was 
Mark  Twain. 

Had  there  been  no  such  journalistic  tide  this  original  genius 
would  still  have  gone  on  his  original  way.  What  these  other 
men  did  was  much  more  to  put  the  public  into  a  humor  for 
Mark  Twain  than  to  lead  Mark  Twain  in  his  approach  to  the 
public.  He  started  as  the  others  did,  allowing  an  undercurrent 
of  seriousness  to  appear  now  and  then  in  the  flow  of  his 
extravagance.  His  platform  experience  taught  him  by  the 
immediate  response  of  the  audience  what  were  the  most 
effective  methods. 

All  Tully's  rules  and  all  Quintilian's  too, 
He  by  the  light  of  listening  faces  knew. 
And  his  rapt  audience,  all  unconscious,  lent 
Their  own  roused  force  to  make  him  eloquent.1 

He  was  quite  deliberate  in  the  employment  of  them.  His 
essay  on  "  How  to  Tell  a  Story"  is  an  evidence  of  what  he 
knew  about  structure,  and  his  letter  to  the  young  London 
editorial  assistant  (see  Paine's  "  Mark  Twain  "  pp.  1091-1093) 
is  only  the  best  of  many  passages  which  show  his  scrupulous 
regard  for  diction.  He  did  not  indulge  in  the  usual  vagaries 
of  spelling;  he  had,  to  paraphrase  his  own  words,  "a  singu 
larly  fine  and  aristocratic  respect  for  homely  and  unpretending 
English  "  ;  and  he  treated  punctuation  as  a  "  delicate  art"  for 
which  he  had  the  highest  respect.  People  who  carelessly  think 
of  Mark  Twain  as  a  kind  of  literary  swashbuckler  can  disabuse 
themselves  by  an  attentive  reading  of  any  few  pages. 

While  they  are  doing  it,  they  can  discover  in  addition  to  the 
points  just  mentioned  that  he  was  essentially  clean-minded. 
Vulgar  he  was,  to  be  sure,  at  times,  in  the  sense  of  not 

1  James  Russell  Lowell,  "  Ode  on  Agassiz." 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  387 

indulging  always  in  drawing-room  talk  or  displaying  drawing- 
room  manners,  as,  for  instance,  in  his  repeated  references  to 
spitting,  —  to  use  the  homely  and  unpretending  word,  —  but  he 
never  partook  of  the  nature  of  his  rough  and  ready  human 
subjects  to  quite  the  extent  that  Franklin  or  Lincoln  did. 
His  pages  are  utterly  free  from  filth.  He  drew  a  line,  no 
doubt  assisted  by  Mrs.  Clemens,  between  what  he  wrote  for 
the  public  and  his  private  speech  and  correspondence.  "He 
had,"  Mr.  Howells  wrote,  "  the  Southwestern,  the  Lincolnian, 
the  Elizabethan  breadth  of  parlance,  which  I  suppose  one 
ought  not  to  call  coarse,  without  calling  one's  self  prudish ; 
and  I  was  always  hiding  away  in  discreet  holes  and  corners 
the  letters  in  which  he  had  loosed  his  bold  fancy  to  stoop  on 
rank  suggestion ;  I  could  not  quite  bear  to  burn  them,  and  I 
could  not,  after  the  first  reading,  quite  bear  to  look  at  them. 
I  shall  best  give  my  feeling  on  this  point  by  saying  that  in  it 
he  was  Shakespearian,  or  if  his  ghost  will  not  suffer  me  the 
word,  then  he  was  Baconian." 

His  humor  relied  on  his  never-failing  and  often  extravagant 
use  of  the  incongruous  and  the  irrelevant.  Often  this  came 
out  in  his  similes  and  metaphors.  "A  jay  hasn't  got  any 
more  principles  than  a  Congressman."  ."  His  lectures  on 
Mont  Blanc  .  .  .  made  people  as  anxious  to  see  it  as  if  it 
owed  them  money."  It  emerged  in  his  impertinent  person 
alities,  as  in  the  instance  of  his  first  meeting  with  Grant, 
when  he  said  after  a  moment  of  awkwardness  :  "  General,  I 
seem  to  be  a  little  embarrassed.  Are  you  ? "  or  as  in  the 
case  of  his  reply  to  a  query  as  to  why  he  always  carried  a 
cotton  umbrella  in  London,  that  it  was  the  only  kind  he  could 
be  sure  would  not  be  stolen  there.  It  appeared  too  in  his 
sober  misuse  of  historical  facts  with  which  he  and  his  readers 
or  auditors  were  well  acquainted.  And  it  was  developed  most 
elaborately  in  "  hoax  "  passages  where,  in  his  violation  of  both 
fact  and  reason,  the  canny  author  looked  like  the  innocent 
flower  but  was  the  serpent  under  it. 


388        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

A  particular  charm  attached  to  his  work  because  it  was  so 
apparently  uncalculated  and  spontaneous.  What  he  wrote  seemed 
to  be  for  his  own  delectation,  and  what  he  spoke  to  be  the 
casual  improvisation  of  the  moment.  At  times,  of  course,  he 
did  improvise  —  with  all  the  art  of  a  musician  whose  mastery 
of  technique  is  no  less  the  result  of  great  labor  because  he  has 
it  completely  in  hand  ;  but  often  the  utterance  which  his  hearers 
took  for  an  extempore  speech  had  been  composed  to  the  last 
syllable  and  then  delivered  with  an  art  that  concealed  its  own 
artistry.  No  doubt  for  the  multitudes  who  bought  up  the  edi 
tions  of  "  Innocents  Abroad"  the  salient  feature  of  Mark  Twain's 
writing  was  its  jovial  extravagance.  The  first  feeling  of  the 
public  was  that  he  had  out-Phcenixed  "  Phoenix  "  and  beaten 
" Petroleum  Nasby"  at  his  own  game.  Beyond  question  he  liter 
ally  "  enjoyed  himself  "  when  he  was  giving  hilarious  enjoyment 
to  others ;  the  free  play  of  his  antic  fancy  was  a  kind  of  self- 
indulgence.  The  best  evidence  is  offered  in  "Joan  of  Arc." 
The  story  is  approached,  pursued,  and  concluded  in  a  spirit  of 
admiration  often  amounting  to  reverence.  Yet  in  the  character 
of  "The  Paladin,"  Edmond  Aubrey,  the  old  miles gloriosus  of 
Roman  comedy,  and  in  Joan's  uncle,  the  historian  reverted  to 
his  broadest  jocosities.  There  are  interpolated  pages  of  pure 
farce.  There  are  scenes  in  "Joan  "  that  are  companion  pieces 
with  portions  of  the  sardonic  "  Man  that  Corrupted  Hadleyburg." 
On  his  seventy-third  birthday  he  wrote,  "I  like  the  'Joan  of 
Arc '  best  of  all  my  books  ;  and  it  is  the  best ;  I  know  it  per 
fectly  well."  Yet  this  serious  chronicle,  with  its  occasional 
outbursts  of  fun,  was  of  a  piece  with  his  best-known  book  of 
nearly  thirty  years  earlier,  the  laugh-invoking  "  Innocents 
Abroad."  The  books  are  not  alien  to  each  other  ;  the  difference 
is  simply  in  the  prevailing  moods. 

For  under  all  the  frolicsome  gayety  and  beneath  the  surface 
ironies  of  this  log  of  "  The  Quaker  City  "  there  is  a  solid  sense 
of  the  realities  of  human  life.  Over  against  the  pure  fun  of 
such  episodes  as  the  Fourth  of  July  celebration  on  the  high  seas 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  389 

is  a  steady  run  of  satire  at  the  traditionalized  affectations  of  the 
American  who  pretended  to  enjoy  the  things  that  he  ought 
and  attempted  to  shake  off  the  manners  of  Bird  City  when  he 
registered  in  his  Paris  hotel.  His  gibes  at  cultural  insincerity, 
however,  did  not  degenerate  into  a  fusillade  of  cheap  cynicisms 
at  everything  old.  Whatever  contempt  he  felt  for  the  antiques 
of  the  tradesmen  was  overshadowed  by  the  solemnity  with  which 
the  evidence  of  the  passing  centuries  impressed  him.  He  may 
not  have  rendered  the  "  old  masters  "  their  full  deserts,  but  he 
entered  a  cathedral  with  respect,  walked  in  reverent  silence 
among  the  ruins  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  felt  in  the  Alps  the 
presence  of  the  Most  High.  "  Notwithstanding  it  is  only  the 
record  of  a  picnic,"  he  wrote  in  the  preface,  "it  has  a  purpose, 
which  is,  to  suggest  to  the  reader  how  he  would  be  likely  to 
see  Europe  and  the  East,  if  he  looked  at  them  with  his  own 
eyes  instead  of  the  eyes  of  those  who  traveled  in  those 
countries  before  him."  So  he  wrote  this  book  out  of  the  fullness 
of  his  heart  as  well  as  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  humor. 
There  was  in  him  a  natural  acumen  which  for  want  of  a  better 
name  we  may  call  wisdom.  His  instinctive  perceptions  were 
usually  right. 

The  fundamental  Mark  Twain  was  an  increasingly  serious 
man.  Before  he  was  fifty  years  old  his  precocious  daughter  had 
written  in  her  journal,  "  He  is  known  to  the  public  as  a  humorist, 
but  he  has  much  more  in  him  that  is  earnest  than  that  is 
humorous."  And  again  :  "  Whenever  we  are  all  alone  at  home 
nine  times  out  of  ten  he  talks  about  some  very  earnest  subject 
(with  an  occasional  joke  thrown  in),  and  he  a  good  deal  more 
often  talks  upon  such  subjects  than  upon  the  other  kind.  He 
is  as  much  a  philosopher  as  anything,  I  think."  There  were  many 
external  reasons  for  his  turn  of  mind.  His  romantic  passage 
through  life  from  obscure  poverty  to  wealth  and  fame,  with  the 
depressing  chapters  of  his  temporary  business  reverses,  height 
ened  his  native  respect  for  the  few  blessings  that  are  really 
worth  while.  His  repeated  travels,  culminating  with  his  trip 


390        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

around  the  world,  the  honors  that  came  to  him,  the  social  dis 
tinctions  that  were  showered  on  him,  his  friendships  with 
thinking  men,  his  bereavements,  all  contributed  to  the  same 
end  of  making  him  consider  the  ways  of  the  world  and  of  the 
maker  thereof.  In  a  further  comment  his  astute  little  daughter 
went  near  to  the  heart  of  the  matter  when  she  wrote  quaintly, 
"  I  think  he  could  have  done  a  great  deal  in  this  direction  if 
he  had  studied  while  young,  for  he  seems  to  enjoy  reasoning 
out  things,  no  matter  what ;  in  a  great  many  such  directions 
he  has  greater  ability  than  in  the  gifts  which  have  made  him 
famous."  "  If  he  had  studied  while  young"  Mark  Twain  might 
have  gained  a  knowledge  of  the  progressions  in  philosophic 
thought  that  would  have  steadied  him  in  his  own  thinking. 
Yet  possibly  it  would  have  made  little  difference,  for  his  think 
ing  was  at  the  same  time  all  his  own  and  altogether  in  the  drift 
of  nineteenth-century  thought. 

With  an  initial  distrust  of  conventionalized  thinking  he  came 
to  his  own  analysis  of  the  prevailing  religious  views.  His  reason 
was  alert  to  challenge  theology  wherever  it  was  at  odds  with 
science.  He  found  nothing  in  the  Bible  to  question  the  assump 
tion  that  Man  was  the  crowning  triumph  of  his  Creator,  but 
everything  in  evolutionary  doctrine  to  suggest  that  Man  was 
only  a  link  in  a  far-evolving  succession  of  higher  forms.  He 
found  a  God  in  the  Old  Testament  who  was  "  an  irascible,  vin 
dictive,  fierce  and  ever  fickle  and  changeful  master,"  though  in 
the  ordering  of  the  material  universe  he  appeared  to  be  steadfast, 
beneficent,  and  fair.  His  reason  thus  unseated  his  faith  in  the 
Scriptures  and  thereby  his  confidence  in  the  creeds  founded 
upon  them.  He  lost  the  God  of  the  Hebrews  only  to  find  his 
own  "  in  the  presence  of  the  benignant  serenity  of  the  Alps," 
.  .  .  "a  spirit  which  had  looked  down,  through  the  slow  drift  of 
ages,  upon  a  million  vanished  races  of  men,  and  judged  them ; 
and  would  judge  a  million  more  —  and  still  be  there,  watching 
unchanged  and  unchangeable,  after  all  life  should  be  gone  and 
the  earth  have  become  a  vacant  desolation." 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  391 

For  the  after-life  he  could  find  no  such  assurance  as  he  could 
for  a  Creator.  For  many  men  of  his  generation,  and  the  one 
just  before,  the  solution  when  they  found  themselves  in  such  a 
quandary  was  to  take  refuge  in  the  authority  of  the  dogmas 
they  had  set  out  to  question ;  many  of  the  most  radical  came 
back  with  relief  to  the  protection  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith ; 
but  Mark  Twain  could  not  find  his  way  into  the  harbor,  glad 
as  he  might  have  been  for  the  anchorage.  There  is  a  deep 
pathos  in  the  many  passages  of  which  the  following  is  a  type : 

To  read  that  in  a  book  written  by  a  monk  far  back  in  the  Middle 
Ages  would  surprise  no  one  ;  it  would  sound  natural  and  proper  ;  but 
when  it  is  seriously  stated  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  by 
a  man  of  finished  education,  an  LL.D.,  M.A.,  and  an  archaeological 
magnate,  it  sounds  strangely  enough.  Still  I  would  gladly  change  my 
unbelief  for  Neligan's  faith,  and  let  him  make  the  conditions  as  hard 
as  he  pleased. 

In  spite  of  all  his  yearnings  he  never  could  achieve  for  him 
self  the  assurance  "  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things 
not  seen  "  ;  so  that  his  most  clearly  formulated  profession  of 
faith  was  in  reality  a  pathetic  profession  of  doubts : 

I  believe  in  God  the  Almighty  ....  I  think  the  goodness,  the  justice 
and  the  mercy  of  God  are  manifested  in  his  works ;  I  perceive  they 
are  manifested  toward  me  in  this  life ;  the  logical  conclusion  is  that 
they  will  be  manifested  toward  me  in  the  life  to  come,  if  there  should 
be  one. 

Here  again,  as  in  his  discrimination  between  "  antiques  "  and 
antiquity,  Mark  Twain  kept  clear  of  a  despairing  cynicism  and 
held  to  the  distinction  between  what  Emerson  called  "historical 
Christianity"  and  the  ideals  from  which  its  adherents  have 
fallen  away.  He  judged  the  religion  of  his  countrymen  by  its 
social  and  national  fruits,  and  he  was  filled  with  wrath  at  the 
indignity  of  an  Episcopal  rector's  refusal  to  perform  the  burial 
service  of  the  actor  George  Holland  and  at  the  extortionate 
demands  of  the  missionaries  for  indemnities  after  the  Boxer 


392        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Rebellion  in  China.    On  the  national  ideals  of  Christendom  he 
spoke  in  bitter  prophecy  in  1908  : 

The  gospel  of  peace  is  always  making  a  deal  of  noise,  always 
rejoicing  in  its  progress  but  always  neglecting  to  furnish  statistics. 
There  are  no  peaceful  nations  now.  All  Christendom  is  a  soldier 
camp.  The  poor  have  been  taxed  in  some  nations  to  the  starvation 
point  to  support  the  giant  armaments  which  Christian  governments 
have  built  up,  each  to  protect  itself  from  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
brotherhood,  and  incidentally  to  snatch  any  scrap  of  real  estate  left 
exposed  by  a  weaker  owner.  King  Leopold  II  of  Belgium,  the  most 
intensely  Christian  monarch,  except  Alexander  VI,  that  has  escaped 
hell  thus  far,  has  stolen  an  entire  kingdom  in  Africa,  and  in  fourteen 
years  of  Christian  endeavor  there  has  reduced  the  population  from 
thirty  millions  to  fifteen  by  murder  and  mutilation  and  overwork,  con 
fiscating  the  labor  of  the  helpless  natives,  and  giving  them  nothing 
in  return  but  salvation  and  a  home  in  heaven,  furnished  at  the  last 
moment  by  the  Christian  priest.  Within  the  last  generation  each 
Christian  power  has  turned  the  bulk  of  its  attention  to  finding  out 
newer  and  still  newer  and  more  and  more  effective  ways  of  killing 
Christians,  and,  incidentally,  a  pagan  now  and  then ;  and  the  surest 
way  to  get  rich  quickly  in  Christ's  earthly  kingdom  is  to  invent  a  kind 
of  gun  that  can  kill  more  Christians  at  one  shot  than  any  other  exist 
ing  kind.  All  the  Christian  nations  are  at  it.  The  more  advanced  they 
are,  the  bigger  and  more  destructive  engines  of  war  they  create. 

Such  doubts  as  to  the  future  and  depression  at  surrounding 
events  have  led  many  an  inquirer  to  a  relaxation  in  his  moral 
standards  and  in  his  personal  conduct ;  but  in  Mark  Twain  his 
rectitude  was  as  deeply  grounded  as  his  humor  —  both,  indeed, 
flowing  from  the  same  source.  Throughout  his  books  he  upheld 
the  simple  virtues  —  common  honesty ;  fidelity  to  the  family ; 
kindness  to  brutes,  to  the  weak  or  suffering,  and  to  the  primi 
tive  peoples.  His  ironies  and  his  satires  were  always  directed 
at  unworthy  objects,  the  varied  forms  of  selfishness  and  insin 
cerity  ;  and  his  answer  to  "  What  is  Happiness  ?  "  is  contained 
in  the  admonition,  "  Diligently  train  your  ideals  upward  and 
still  upward,  toward  a  summit  where  you  will  find  your  chiefest 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  393 

pleasure  in  conduct  which,  while  contenting  you,  will  be  sure 
to  confer  benefits  upon  your  neighbor  and  the  community." 

Not  until  the  last  years  of  his  life  did  readers  begin  to  take 
Mark  Twain  seriously  ;  now  they  are  coming  to  appreciate  him. 
He  has  been  fortunate  in  his  literary  champions  —  biographers, 
critics,  and  expositors  —  and  incomparably  so  in  the  loving 
interpretation,  "  My  Mark  Twain,"  by  his  intimate  friend, 
William  Dean  Howells.  This  concludes  :  "  Out  of  a  nature 
rich  and  fertile  beyond  any  that  I  have  ever  known,  the  mate 
rial  given  him  by  the  Mystery  that  makes  a  man  and  then 
leaves  him  to  make  himself  over,  he  wrought  a  character  of 
high  nobility  upon  a  foundation  of  clear  and  solid  truth.  .  .  . 
It  is  in  vain  that  I  try  to  give  a  notion  of  the  intensity  with 
which  he  pierced  to  the  heart  of  life,  and  the  breadth  of  vision 
with  which  he  compassed  the  whole  world,  and  tried  for  the 
reason  of  things,  and  then  left  trying.  .  .  .  Next  I  saw  him 
dead.  ...  I  looked  a  moment  at  the  face  I  knew  so  well ;  and 
it  was  patient  with  the  patience  I  had  so  often  seen  in  it ; 
something  of  puzzle,  a  great  silent  dignity,  an  assent  to  what 
must  be  from  the  depths  of  a  nature  whose  tragical  serious 
ness  broke  in  the  laughter  which  the  unwise  took  for  the  whole 
of  him.  Emerson,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Holmes  —  I  knew  them 
all  —  and  all  the  rest  of  our  sages,  poets,  seers,  critics,  humor 
ists  ;  they  were  like  one  another  and  like  other  literary  men ; 
but  Clemens  was  sole,  incomparable,  the  Lincoln  of  our 
literature." 

BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Authors 

BRET  HARTE.  Works.  Standard  Library  Edition.  20  vols.  During 
his  lifetime  his  works  were  issued  in  forty-nine  successive  volumes 
between  1 867  and  1 902.  Of  these  seven  were  poetry,  and  of  the  prose 
works  two  were  novels.  The  remainder  were  made  up  of  short  units, 
mostly  narrative. 

Biographies 

BOYNTON,  H.  W.   Bret  Harte.    1905. 

MERWIN,  H.  C.    The  Life  of  Bret  Harte,  with  some  Account  of  the 
California  Pioneers.    1911. 


394        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

PATTEE,  F.  L.   American  Literature  since  1870,  chap.  iv.   1915. 
PEMBERTON,  T.  E.    Life  of  Bret  Harte.    1903. 

MARK  TWAIN.  Works.  Writings  of  Mark  Twain.  1910.  25  vols. 
(These  have  been  supplemented  by  various  posthumous  articles  in 
Harper^s  Magazine  which  have  been  published,  and  will  doubtless 
be  further  added  to,  in  supplementary  volumes.)  His  works  appeared 
in  book  form  originally  as  follows:  The  Jumping  Frog,  1867;  The 
Innocents  Abroad,  1869;  Autobiography  and  First  Romance,  1871 ; 
Roughing  It,  1872;  The  Gilded  Age  (with  C.  D.  Warner),  1873; 
Sketches  New  and  Old,  1875;  Tom  Sawyer,  1876;  The  Stolen 
White  Elephant,  1878;  A  Tramp  Abroad,  1880;  The  Prince  and 
the  Pauper,  1881 ;  Life  on  the  Mississippi,  1883  ;  Huckleberry  Finn, 
1884;  A  Connecticut  Yankee  in  the  Court  of  King  Arthur,  1889; 
The  American  Claimant,  1891 ;  Tom  Sawyer  Abroad,  1894;  Pudd'n- 
head  Wilson,  1894;  Joan  of  Arc,  1896;  Tom  Sawyer  Detective, 
and  Other  Stories,  1896;  Following  the  Equator,  1897;  Christian 
Science,  1907;  Captain  Stormfield's  Visit  to  Heaven,  1907;  Is 
Shakespeare  Dead,  1908. 

Bibliography 

A  volume  by  M.  Johnson.    1910. 

Chronological  list  of  Mark  Twain's  work  published  and  otherwise, 
Appendix  X,  Vol.  Ill,  of  Mark  Twain,  by  A.  B.  Paine  (see  below). 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  life  is  by  Albert  Bigelow  Paine.    1912.    3  vols. 

The  following  list  does  not  attempt  to  represent  the  periodical 
material  except  for  one  symposium  in  The  Bookman.  See  the  Reader's 
Guide  to  Periodical  Literature.  The  volume  for  1910-1914  alone 
contains  seventy-six  items. 

CLEMENS,  W.  M.    Mark  Twain  :  his  Life  and  Work.   1892. 

HENDERSON,  ARCHIBALD.    Mark  Twain.   1912. 

HOWELLS,  W.  D.    My  Mark  Twain.    1910. 

Mark  Twain's  Letters  (edited  by  A.  B.  Paine).    1917. 

MATTHEWS,  BRANDER.    Inquiries  and  Opinions.    1907. 

PAINE,  A.  B.   A  Boy's  Life  of  Mark  Twain.   1916. 

PATTEE,  F.  L.    American  Literature  since  1870,  chap.  iii.   1915. 

PHELPS,  W.  L.    Essays  on  Modern  Novelists.    1910. 

SHERMAN,  STUART.  Fifty  Years  of  American  Idealism  (edited  by 
Gustav  Pollak).  1915.  Also  in  On  Contemporary  Literature. 
1918. 

WALLACE,  ELIZABETH.    Mark  Twain  and  the  Happy  Island.   1913. 

The  Bookman,  Vol.  XXXI,  pp.  363-396 :  Mark  Twain  in  San  Fran 
cisco,  by  Bailey  Millard ;  Mark  Twain,  an  Appreciation,  by 


THE  WEST  AND  MARK  TWAIN  395 

Henry  M.  Alden.  Best  Sellers  of  Yesterday:  The  Innocents 
Abroad,  by  A.  B.  Maurice ;  Mark  Twain  in  Clubland,  by  W.  H. 
Rideing;  Mark  Twain  a  Century  Hence,  by  Harry  Thurston 
Peck ;  The  Story  of  Mark  Twain's  Debts,  by  F.  A.  King. 


TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Note,  as  you  read  any  one  of  Mark  Twain's  longer  stories,  pass 
ages  which  are  evidently  autobiographical.  Do  these  throw  any  light 
on  the  history  of  his  neighborhoods  and  his  period  or  are  they 
purely  personal  in  their  interest? 

Read  the  essay  "  How  to  tell  a  Story "  and  test  it  by  Mark 
Twain's  method  in  one  of  his  shorter  stories  and  in  one  of  his 
after-dinner  speeches  as  printed  in  the  appendix  to  Vol.  Ill  of 
A.  B.  Paine's  "  Life." 

Read  a  few  pages  at  random  for  observations  on  Mark  Twain's 
diction.  Is  it  more  like  Emerson's  or  Lowell's,  more  like  Whitman's 
or  Longfellow's  ? 

Does  Mark  Twain's  consistent  interest  in  history  appear  in  his 
writing  through  the  use  of  allusion  and  comparison  ? 

Read  for  the  employment  of  unexpected  humor.  Are  passages  in 
which  it  suddenly  appears  the  result  of  forethought  or  merely  the 
result  of  whim  ? 

Read  for  Mark  Twain's  resort  to  serious  satire.  To  what  objects 
of  satire  does  he  most  frequently  revert  ? 

Do  you  find  a  distinction  between  Mark  Twain's  attitude  toward 
religion  and  his  attitude  toward  religious  people  ? 

Mark  Twain  is  held  up  as  an  example  of  Americanism.  Do  his 
writings  give  evidence  of  patriotism  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word  ? 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER 

In  the  development  of  a  Western  literature  Sill  and  Miller, 
like  Bret  Harte  and  Mark  Twain  and  like  all  the  other  adult 
Californians  in  the  pioneer  period,  were  imported  from  the 
East,  but  they  were  not  such  temporary  sojourners  as  the  two 
prose  writers.  Sill,  after  an  Eastern  education,  enjoyed  two 
prolonged  residences  in  California,  and  in  his  journeyings  back 
and  forth  became  a  kind  of  cultural  medium,  bringing  some 
thing  of  Eastern  tradition  to  the  Pacific  coast  and  interpreting 
the  West  to  the  East.  Of  the  four  men  Joaquin  Miller  was 
the  most  completely  and  continuously  Western.  He  went  out 
almost  as  early  as  Mark  Twain  did,  lived  during  boyhood  in 
far  more  primitive  circumstances,  and,  after  varied  travels  in  the 
East  and  in  Europe  and  intimate  association  with  the  world  of 
letters,  returned  to  the  West  for  his  old  age,  dying  "on  the 
heights  "  in  sight  of  the  Golden  Gate. 

EDWARD   ROWLAND   SILL  (1841-1887) 

Sill  was  born  in  Windsor,  Connecticut,  in  1841.  In  1861 
he  was  graduated  from  Yale,  where  he  had  developed  more 
clearly  than  anything  else  a  dislike  for  narrowly  complacent 
orthodoxy  of  thought  and  conduct  and  had  acquired  a  strain 
of  mild  misanthropy  which  characterized  him  for  the  next  sev 
eral  years.  His  health  sent  him  West,  by  sailing-vessel  around 
Cape  Horn,  and  he  stayed  in  California  occupied  in  a  variety 
of  jobs  until  1866.  A  winter's  study  satisfied  him  that  he 
should  not  enter  the  ministry,  and  a  shorter  experiment  that 
he  could  not  succeed  in  New  York  journalism.  In  1868  he 

396 


THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER  397 

published  the  only  volume  of  poems  during  his  lifetime,  the 
little  duodecimo  entitled  "  The  Hermitage."  From  this  year  to 
1882  he  was  occupied  in  teaching  —  first  in  the  high  schools  at 
Cuyahoga  Falls,  Ohio,  and  Oakland,  California,  and  from  1874 
on  in  the  department  of  English  in  the  University  of  California. 
Here  he  had  the  double  distinction  of  serving  under  President 
Daniel  C.  Oilman  and  over  Josiah  Royce,  whom  he  secured  as 
assistant.  A  letter  of  1882  gives  as  the  reason  for  his  resigna 
tion  that  his  "  position  had  become  intolerable  for  certain 
reasons  that  are  not  for  pen  and  ink,"  in  spite  of  which  ill 
health  is  usually  assigned  as  the  cause.  In  1883  a  second 
volume,  "The  Venus  of  Milo,  and  Other  Poems"  was  privately 
printed.  For  the  rest  of  his  life  he  lived  at  Cuyahoga  Falls 
again,  writing  frequently  under  the  name  of  Andrew  Hedbrook 
for  the  Atlantic,  whose  pages  were  opened  to  his  prose  and 
verse  through  the  appreciative  interest  of  the  editor,  his  fellow- 
poet,  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich.  He  died  in  1887. 

During  his  last  thirty  years,  from  his  entrance  to  Yale  in 
1857  to  his  death  in  1887,  Edward  Rowland  Sill  experienced 
American  life  in  a  variety  of  ways  which  were  not  exactly  par 
alleled  in  the  career  of  any  of  his  contemporaries.  He  did  not 
belong  to  any  literary  group.  Because  of  a  certain  timidity, 
which  was  probably  more  artistic  than  social,  he  did  not  even 
become  acquainted  with  the  well-known  authors  who  were  his 
neighbors  while  he  was  in  Cambridge  and  New  York  City ; 
but  his  natural  inclination  to  find  his  proper  place  and  do  his 
proper  work  led  him  to  partake  of  the  life  on  both  coasts  and 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  to  contribute  richly  to  the  lead 
ing  periodicals  of  the  East  and  the  West  —  the  Atlantic  and 
the  Overland  Monthly. 

By  inclination  he  was  from  the  outset  a  cultured  radical. 
He  loved  the  best  that  the  past  had  to  offer,  he  wanted  to 
make  the  will  of  God  prevail,  and  he  was  certain  that  between 
lethargy  and  crassness  the  millennium  was  being  long  delayed. 
It  was  lethargy  which  characterized  Yale  and  New  Haven  for 


398        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

him.1  The  curriculum  was  dull  in  itself  and  little  redeemed  by 
any  vital  teaching  or  by  reference  to  current  thought.  The 
faculty,  wrote  one  of  his  classmates,  "  gave  us  a  rare  example 
of  single-hearted,  self-sacrificing,  and  unswerving  devotion  to 
duty,  as  they  saw  it.  But  they  had  not  the  gift  to  see  much  of 
it,  and  so  their  example  lacked  inspiration.  It  is  astounding 
that  so  much  knowledge  (one-sided  though  it  was)  and  so  much 
moral  worth  could  have  existed  side  by  side  with  so  much 
obtuseness."  The  natural  consequence  was  that  Sill  picked  up 
what  crumbs  of  comfort  he  could  from  miscellaneous  reading, 
was  "rusticated"  for  neglect  of  his  routine  duties,  wrote  Car- 
lylesque  essays  of  discontent,  and  went  out  from  graduation 
with  a  deep  feeling  of  protest  against  what  he  supposed  was 
the  world.  "  Morning  "  and  "  The  Clocks  of  Gnoster  Town, 
or  Truth  by  Majority  "  are  the  chief  poetical  results  of  this 
experience. 

California  offered  him  a  relief,  but  too  much  of  a  relief.  He 
was  always  loyal  to  his  closest  college  friends  and  to  his  ideals 
for  Yale.  The  license  of  a  frontier  mining  country  did  not  in 
any  sense  supply  the  freedom  which  New  Haven  had  denied 
him.  His  greatest  pleasure  out  there  was  in  the  companionship 
of  an  intellectual  and  music-loving  "Yale  "  family.  And  so  his 
revolt  from  the  world  and  his  return  to  it,  which  are  motivated 
in  "  The  Hermitage  "  by  the  charms  of  a  lovely  blonde,  had  a 
deeper  cause  in  the  facts  of  his  spiritual  adolescence.  All  this 
pioneering  was  in  the  nature  of  self-discovery.  For  a  while  he 
inclined  to  the  study  of  law  because  he  thought  the  discipline 
of  legal  training  would  lead  him  toward  the  truth.  Then  after 
returning  to  the  East  he  came  by  way  of  theological  study 
and  journalism  to  his  final  work :  "  .  .  .  only  the  great  school 
master  Death  will  ever  take  me  through  these  higher  mathe 
matics  of  the  religious  principia  —  this  side  of  his  schooling, 
in  these  primary  grades,  I  never  can  preach.  —  I  shall  teach 
school,  I  suppose." 

>  See  chap,  ii,  "  His  Life  at  College,"  in  W.  B.  Parker's  Life. 


THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER  399 

Now  that  he  had  left  it,  however,  the  charm  of  California 
was  upon  him.  Although  he  was  later  to  write  in  sardonic 
comment  on  the  dry  season, 

Come  where  my  stubbly  hillside  slowly  dries, 
And  fond  adhesive  tarweeds  gently  shade, 

he  was  really  in  love  with  the  great  open  vistas,  the  gentleness 
of  the  climate,  and  with  the  Calif ornians'  "  independence  of 
judgment ;  their  carelessness  of  what  a  barbarian  might  think, 
so  long  as  he  came  from  beyond  the  border ;  their  apparent 
freedom  in  choosing  what  manner  of  men  they  should  be ; 
their  ready  and  confident  speech."  "  Christmas  in  California," 
"Among  the  Redwoods,"  and  "The  Departure  of  the  Pilot" 
are  examples  of  much  more  California  verse  and  of  the  spirit 
of  many  and  many  of  his  letters.  Yet  for  this  radical  thinker 
institutional  life  was  somewhat  cramping  even  here.  It  is  an 
unhappy  fact  that  colleges  and  universities,  devised  as  systems 
for  educating  the  average  by  the  slightly  more  than  average, 
have  rarely  been  flexible  enough  in  their  management  to  give 
fair  harborage  for  creative  genius  either  in  front  of  or  behind 
the  desk.  Sill's  experience  was  not  unusual ;  it  only  went  to 
prove  that  in  academic  America  East  was  West  and  West  was 
East  and  that  the  two  had  never  been  parted.  So  finally  the 
young  poet,  still  young  after  two  periods  of  residence  on  each 
coast,  settled  down  again  to  quiet  literary  work  in  the  little 
Ohio  town.  There  were  only  five  years  left  him. 

Throughout  his  work,  but  increasingly  in  these  later  years, 
there  is  a  fine  and  simple  clarity  of  execution.  The  something 
in  him  which  withheld  him  from  calling  on  Longfellow  and 
the  others  when  in  Cambridge,  or  even  on  his  fellow-collegian 
Stedman  in  New  York,  made  him  slow  to  publish,  rigorous  in 
self-criticism,  and  eager  to  print  anonymously  or  under  a 
pseudonym.  He  wrote  painstakingly,  followed  his  contribu 
tions  to  the  editors  with  substituted  versions,  and  revised  even 
in  the  proof.  Although  he  was  a  wide  reader,  he  was  usually 


400        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

independent  of  immediate  models,  and  always  so  in  his  later 
work.  He  avoided  the  stock  phrases  of  poetry,  but  often 
equaled  the  best  of  them  himself :  "  the  whispering  pine,  Surf 
sound  of  an  aerial  sea,"  "  Struck  through  with  slanted  shafts 
of  afternoon,"  "  When  the  low  music  makes  a  dusk  of  sound," 
are  representatives  of  his  own  fresh  coinage. 

A  reading  of  Sill's  poetry  would  reveal  much  of  his  life 
story  without  other  explanation.  An  acquaintance  with  his 
biography  makes  most  of  the  rest  clear.  The  poems  relate  in 
succession  to  his  college  experience,  his  lifelong  search  for 
truth,  his  Western  voyage,  his  revolt  against  the  world  and  his 
return  to  it,  his  residence  in  California.  They  show  in  parts 
of  "The  Hermitage"  and  in  "Five  Lives"  his  rebellion  at  the 
incursions  of  science.  They  show,  however,  that  in  his  own 
mind  a  greater  conflict  than  that  between  science  and  religion 
was  the  conflict,  as  he  saw  it,  between  religion  and  the  church. 

For  my  part  I  long  to  "  fall  in  "  with  somebody.  This  picket  duty 
is  monotonous.  I  hanker  after  a  shoulder  on  this  side  and  the  other. 
I  can't  agree  in  belief  (or  expressed  belief  —  Lord  knows  what  the 
villains  really  think,  at  home)  with  the  "Christian"  people,  nor  in 
spirit  with  the  Radicals,  etc.  .  .  .  Many,  here  and  there,  must  be  living 
the  right  way,  doing  their  best,  hearty  souls,  and  I'd  like  to  go  'round 
the  world  for  the  next  year  and  take  tea  with  them  in  succession. 

The  tone  of  this  letter,  written  in  1870,  was  to  prevail  more 
and  more  in  his  later  years.  He  had  passed  out  from  the  rather 
desperate  seriousness  of  young  manhood.  He  had  found  that 
on  the  whole  life  was  good.  He  was  no  less  serious  at  bottom 
than  before,  but  in  the  years  approaching  the  fullness  of  his 
maturity  he  let  his  natural  antic  humor  play  without  restraint. 
As  a  consequence  the  poems  after  1875  tend  as  a  group  to 
deal  more  often  with  slighter  themes  and  in  lighter  vein.  The 
human  soul  did  not  cease  to  interest  him,  but  the  human  mind 
interested  Sill  the  husband  and  the  teacher  more  than  they 
had  interested  Sill  the  youthful  misanthrope.  Thus  the  con 
fidence  in  "  Force,"  the  subtlety  in  "  Her  Explanation,"  the 


THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER  401 

mockery  in  "The  Agile  Sonneteer,"  and  the  whimsical  truth 
of  "  Momentous  Words  "  were  all  recorded  after  he  was  forty 
years  of  age. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  the  incompleteness  of  his  career. 
It  was  cut  off  without  warning  while  Sill  was  in  a  state  of 
happy  relief  from  the  perplexities  of  earlier  years.  He  was 
gaining  in  ease  and  power  of  workmanship.  There  was  a 
modest  demand,  in  the  economic  sense,  for  his  work.  There 
was  everything  to  stimulate  him  to  authorship  and  much  to 
suggest  that  in  time  he  would  pass  beyond  this  genial  good 
humor  into  a  period  of  serene  and  broadening  maturity.  Pos 
sibly  in  another  decade  he  would  have  come  into  some  sense 
of  nationalism  which  would  have  illuminated  for  him  the  wide 
reaches  of  America  which  he  had  passed  and  repassed.  The 
Civil  War  had  meant  nothing  to  him :  "What  is  the  grandeur 
of  serving  a  state,  whose  tail  is  stinging  its  head  to  death  like 
a  scorpion  !  "  Since  war  times  he  had  passed  out  of  hermitage 
into  society,  and  with  the  Spanish  War  he  might  have  seen 
America  and  the  larger  human  family  with  opened  eyes.  But 
at  forty-six  the  arc  of  his  life  was  snapped  off  short. 


JOAQUIN  MILLER  (1841-1913) 

Cincinnatus  Hiner  Miller  was  born  in  1841.  "My  cradle 
was  a  covered  wagon,  pointed  west.  I  was  born  in  a  covered 
wagon,  I  am  told,  at  or  about  the  time  it  crossed  the  line  divid 
ing  Indiana  from  Ohio."  His  father  was  born  of  Scotch  immi 
grant  stock  —  a  natural  frontiersman,  but  a  man  with  a  love 
of  books  and  a  teacher  among  his  fellow-wanderers.  In  1852, 
moved  by  the  same  restlessness  that  had  taken  the  Clemens 
family  to  Missouri  seventeen  years  earlier,  the  Millers  started 
on  the  three-thousand-mile  roundabout  journey  to  Oregon,  find 
ing  their  way  without  roads  over  the  plains  and  mountains  in 
a  trip  lasting  more  than  seven  months.  It  was  from  this  that 
the  boy  gained  his  lasting  respect  for  the  first  pioneers. 


402        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

O  bearded,  stalwart,  westmost  men, 
So  tower-like,  so  Gothic  built ! 
A  kingdom  won  without  the  guilt 
Of  studied  battle,  that  hath  been 
Your  blood's  inheritance.  .  .  .    Your  heirs 
Know  not  your  tombs :  The  great  plough-shares 
Cleave  softly  through  the  mellow  loam 
Where  you  have  made  eternal  home, 
And  set  no  sign.    Your  epitaphs 
Are  writ  in  furrows. 

After  two  years  in  the  new  Oregon  home  the  coming  poet 
ran  away  with  a  brother  to  seek  gold.  They  seem  to  have 
separated,  and  in  the  following  years  the  one  who  came  to 
celebrity  survived  a  most  amazing  series  of  primitive  experi 
ences  and  primitive  hardships  among  the  Indians.  Part  of  his 
time,  however,  with  "  Mountain  Joe "  preserved  his  contact 
with  books,  for  this  man,  a  graduate  of  Heidelberg,  helped 
him  with  his  Latin.  The  boy  returned  to  Oregon  early  enough 
to  earn  a  diploma  at  Columbia  University  in  1859,  —  an  insti 
tution  in  which  the  collegiate  quality  was  doubtless  entirely 
restricted  to  its  name.  According  to  Miller  the  eagerness  of 
study  there  was  no  less  intense  than  the  zest  for  every  other 
kind  of  experience  among  the  early  settlers.  In  the  next 
decade  he  had  many  occupations.  For  a  while  he  was  express 
messenger,  carrying  gold  dust,  but  safe  from  the  Indians,  who 
had  become  his  trusted  friends.  "  Those  matchless  night-rides 
under  the  stars,  dashing  into  the  Orient  doors  of  dawn  before 
me  as  the  sun  burst  through  the  shining  mountain  pass,  — 
this  brought  my  love  of  song  to  the  surface."  Later  he  was 
editor  of  a  pacifist  newspaper  which  was  suppressed  for  alleged 
treason.  But  the  largest  proportion  of  his  time  was  spent  at 
the  law.  From  1866  to  1870  he  held  a  minor  judgeship. 

Throughout  all  this  time  —  he  was  now  nearly  thirty  — 
Miller's  primary  passion  had  been  for  poetry  and  for  casting 
in  poetic  form  something  of  the  rich,  vivid  romance  of  the  great 


THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER  403 

West  and  Southwest.  In  1868  a  thin  booklet,  "Specimens," 
was  issued  and  in  San  Francisco,  in  1869,  "Joaquin  et  al." 
For  naming  his  book  in  this  fashion  instead  of  "Joaquin  and 
Other  Poems,"  his  legal  friends  repaid  him  with  a  derisive  nick 
name  that  finally  became  the  one  by  which  the  world  knows 
him.  Bret  Harte,  then  in  an  influential  editorship,  gave  the 
book  a  fair  review,  but  in  general  it  was  slightingly  treated. 

Impulsive  in  mood  and  accustomed  to  little  respect  for  the 
hardships  of  travel,  Miller  started  East,  and  three  months 
later,  as  he  records,  was  kneeling  at  the  grave  of  Burns  with 
a  definite  resolve  to  complete  his  life  in  the  country  of  his  fore 
fathers.  In  the  volume  of  poems  of  his  own  selection  he  wrote 
of  "Vale!  America,"  "  I  do  not  like  this  bit  of  impatience 
nor  do  I  expect  anyone  else  to  like  it,  and  only  preserve  it 
here  as  a  sort  of  landmark  or  journal  in  my  journey  through 
life."  But  for  the  moment  in  his  sensitiveness  he  doubtless 
wrote  quite  truly : 

I  starve,  I  die, 

Each  day  of  my  life.    Ye  pass  me  by 
Each  day,  and  laugh  as  ye  pass ;  and  when 
Ye  come,  I  start  in  my  place  as  ye  come, 
And  lean,  and  would  speak,  —  but  my  lips  are  dumb. 

He  had,  of  course,  no  reputation  in  London,  where  he  soon 
settled  near  the  British  Museum,  and  the  period  was  an  unpro- 
pitious  one  for  poetry.  A  descendant  and  namesake  of  the 
John  Murray  who  had  refused  to  deal  with  "The  Sketch 
Book"  (see  p.  118  )  gave  a  like  response  to  Miller's  offer  of 
his  "  Pacific  Poems."  But  Miller  carried  the  risk-taking  spirit 
of  the  pioneer  to  the  point  of  privately  printing  one  hundred 
copies  and  sending  them  broadcast  for  review,  with  the  result 
of  an  immediate  and  enthusiastic  recognition.  The  "  Songs  of 
the  Sierras  "  were  soon  regularly  published  in  London,  and  the 
poet  was  received  in  friendliest  fashion  as  a  peer  of  Dean 
Stanley,  Lord  Houghton,  Robert  Browning,  and  all  the  pre- 
Raphaelite  brotherhood. 


404       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  period  from  1873  to  1887  is  distinctly  a  middle  zone 
in  Miller's  career.  The  restless  eagerness  of  his  formative 
years  still  dominated  him,  but  it  led  him  for  the  most  part  to 
rapid  changes,  most  of  which  were  in  the  world  of  men  and 
many  of  which  were  in  the  largest  cities.  His  moves  on  both 
continents  are  difficult  to  follow  and  have  not  been  clearly 
unraveled  by  any  biographer.  One  can  get  a  fairly  clear  idea 
of  their  nature  if  not  of  their  order  by  an  attentive  reading  of 
his  poems  and  particularly  of  the  chatty  footnotes  with  which 
he  accompanied  the  collections  he  edited.  He  continued  to  use 
the  frontier  experience  of  the  early  days.  His  most  character 
istic  poems  were  stories  of  thrilling  experience  in  the  open.  In 
"  My  Own  Story,"  "  Life  Amongst  the  Modocs,"  "  Unwritten 
History,  Paquita,"  and  "  My  Life  Among  the  Indians "  he 
recorded  the  same  material  in  prose.  In  certain  other  poems, 
particularly  the  "  Isles  of  the  Amazons  "  and  "  The  Baroness 
of  New  York,"  he  set  in  contrast  the  romance  of  the  forest 
with  the  petty  conventions  of  the  metropolis,  and  in  "The 
Song  of  the  South  "  he  attempted — not  to  his  own  satisfaction 
—  to  do  for  the  Mississippi  what  he  had  done  for  the  moun 
tains.  Shorter  lyrics  show  his  response  to  world  events  such 
as  the  death  of  Garfield  and  the  American  war  with  Spain. 
In  two  poems  of  1901  he  wrote  in  withering  condemnation 
of  England's  policy  toward  the  Boers. 

rln  all  the  material  of  this  middle  period  the  dominant 
feature  is  his  praise  of  the  elemental  forces  of  nature.  Nature 
itself  for  him  was  always  dynamic.  The  sea  and  the  forest  at 
rest  suggested  to  him  their  latent  powers.  His  best  scenes  deal 
with  storm,  flood,  and  fire,  and  when  occasionally  he  painted  a 
calm  background,  as  in  the  departure  of  "  The  Last  Taschastas," 
the  burnished  beauty  of  the  setting  is  in  strong  contrast  with 
the  violence  of  the  episode.  In  human  experience  he  most 
admired  the  exertion  of  primitive  strength.  It  is  this  which 
endeared  the  early  pioneers  to  him.  Man  coping  with  nature 
thrilled  him,  but  for  human  conflict  he  had  little  sympathy. 


THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER  405 

His  women  were  Amazonian  in  physique  and  character  —  a 
singularly  consistent  type,  almost  a  recurrence  of  one  woman 
of  various  complexions.  In  the  judgment  of  Whitman  —  his 
Washington  intimate  of  two  years — he  must  have  fallen  from 
grace  in  his  treatment  of  love.  If  he  did  not  vie  (to  paraphrase 
Burroughs)  "  with  the  lascivious  poets  in  painting  it  as  the 
forbidden  "  passion,  he  did  compete  with  the  fleshly  school  in 
depicting  all  its  charms.  Yet  even  here  in  that  strange  con 
cluding  romance  "  Light "  he  struggled  to  overcome  the 
sensuous  with  the  spiritual  element. 

The  form  of  all  this  mid-period  work  was  quite  conventional 
and,  in  view  of  the  content,  smacked  strangely  of  the  library 
and  the  drawing  room.  He  ran  as  a  rule  to  four-stressed  lines, 
indulged  in  insistent  riming,  rarely  missing  a  chance,  and  cast 
his  stanzas  into  a  jogging  and  seldom-varied  rhythm.  In  their 
assault  on  the  ear  his  verses  have  little  delicacy  of  appeal. 
They  blare  at  the  reader  like  the  brasses  in  an  orchestral 
fortissimo.  They  clamor  at  him  with  the  strident  regularity 
of  a  Sousa  march.  This  dominant  measure  accords  well  with 
the  rude  subject  matter  of  his  poems,  —  the  march  of  the  pio 
neer,  the  plod  of  oxen  yoked  to  the  prairie  schooner,  the  roar 
of  prairie  fire  or  of  the  wind  through  the  forest ;  and,  with  a 
difference,  the  hoof-beat  of  galloping  horses  or  of  stampeding 
buffalo.  And  it  expresses  the  rhetorical  magniloquence  which 
is  the  natural  fruit  of  life  in  a  country  of  magnificent  distances. 
At  the  same  time  Miller  found  a  poetical  justification  for  his 
style  in  the  narrative  rhythms  of  Scott  and  Byron  and  Coleridge, 
by  whom  he  was  often  and  evidently  influenced.  Until  he 
was  well  past  mid-career  he  was  boyishly  open  to  direct  literary 
influences.  He  had  no  theory  of  prosody ;  his  originality  was 
inherent  in  the  harmony  between  himself  and  his  wild  material ; 
so  he  tried  his  hand  at  writing  in  the  manner  of  this,  that,  and 
the  other  man. 

In  his  final  revisions,  however,  he  was  ruthless  in  rejecting 
his  imitative  passages  and  in  his  reduction  of  earlier  work  to 


406        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

what  was  unqualifiedly  his  own.  This  is  best  illustrated  by 
what  he  did  to  "The  Baroness  of  New  York  "  before  he  had 
done  with  it.  In  its  original  form  of  1877  it  filled  a  whole 
volume,  a  poem  —  not  a  novel,  as  often  erroneously  stated  — 
in  two  parts.  The  former  is  a  sea-island  romance  of  love  and 
desertion  after  the  manner  of  Scott ;  the  sequel  presents  Adora 
in  New  York  as  the  Baroness  du  Bois,  where  she  lives  in  scorn 
ful  indifference  until  the  original  lover  turns  up  with  a  title 
of  his  own  and  carries  her  off  in  triumph  ;  this  second  part 
is  in  the  manner  of  Byron.  When  Miller  included  this  poem 
in  his  collected  edition  of  1897,  he  dropped  all  the  Byronic, 
metropolitan  portion  and  reduced  the  rest  to  less  than  half  — 
the  fraction  that  was  quite  his  own. 

Such  a  revision  was  in  the  fullest  sense  the  work  of  matured 
judgment.  Miller  was  now  in  his  last  long  period  of  picturesque 
retirement  on  "The  Heights,"  looking  back  over  his  prolific 
output  of  former  years,  recognizing  the  good  in  it,  and  depend 
ing  upon  the  public  to  reject  what  had  no  right  to  a  long  life. 
At  times  he  still  wrote  poem-stories  located  in  settings  of 
tumultuous  abundance,  but  he  supplemented  these  with  more 
and  more  frequent  short  lyrics,  and  he  studied  continually  to 
achieve  that  simplicity  which  is  seldom  the  result  of  anything 
but  perfected  artistry.  In  1902  he  wrote : 

Shall  we  ever  have  an  American  literature  ?  Yes,  when  we  leave 
sound  and  words  to  the  winds.  American  science  has  swept  time  and 
space  aside.  American  science  dashes  along  at  fifty,  sixty  miles  an 
hour ;  but  American  literature  still  lumbers  along  in  the  old-fashioned 
English  stage-coach  at  ten  miles  an  hour ;  and  sometimes  with  a  red- 
coated  outrider  blowing  a  horn.  We  must  leave  all  this  behind  us. 
We  have  not  time  for  words.  A  man  who  uses  a  great,  big,  sounding 
word,  when  a  short  one  will  do,  is  to  that  extent  a  robber  of  time. 
A  jewel  that  depends  greatly  on  its  setting  is  not  a  great  jewel. 
When  the  Messiah  of  American  literature  comes,  he  will  come  singing, 
so  far  as  may  be,  in  words  of  one  syllable. 

In  the  main  his  hope  now  was  to  pass  from  objective  poetry 
to  "the  vision  of  worlds  beyond," — a  vision  which  he  more 


THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER  407 

nearly  approached  in  "  Sappho  and  Phaon  "  than  in  any  other 
poem,  and  a  vision  for  which  the  motive  is  stated  in  the  second 
stanza  of  "  Adios  "  : 

Could  I  but  teach  man  to  believe  — 
Could  I  but  make  small  men  to  grow, 
To  break  frail  spider-webs  that  weave 
About  their  thews  and  bind  them  low ; 
Could  I  but  sing  one  song  and  slay 
Grim  Doubt ;  I  then  could  go  my  way 
In  tranquil  silence,  glad,  serene, 
And  satisfied,  from  off  the  scene. 
But  ah,  this  disbelief,  this  doubt, 
This  doubt  of  God,  this  doubt  of  good,  — 
The  damned  spot  will  not  out. 

In  the  meanwhile,  by  way  of  a  practical  application  of  his 
ideals,  Miller  was  attempting  to  lead  his  life  sanely  and,  by  an 
association  that  suggests  the  old  Greek  academy,  to  point  the 
way  for  the  younger  generation  of  poets.  In  his  final  note  to 
the  1902  edition  he  described  himself  as  living  on  "a  sort  of 
hillside  Bohemia."  No  lessons  were  taught  there  except,  by 
example,  the  lesson  of  living.  Three  or  four  "  tenets  or  prin 
ciples  of  life  "  were  insisted  upon :  that  man  is  good ;  that 
there  is  nothing  ugly  in  nature ;  that  man  is  immortal ;  that 
nature  wastes  no  thing  and  no  time ;  and  that  man  should 
learn  the  lesson  of  economy.  So  in  a  way  he  returned  to 
the  simple  conditions  in  which  his  earliest  life  had  grounded 
his  affections. 

Miller  naturally  invites  comparison  with  Mark  Twain  and 
Walt  Whitman.  The  likeness  starts  with  the  simple  origins 
of  all  three  and  with  the  rough-and-ready  circumstances  of 
their  upbringing.  It  continues  with  their  resultant  sympathetic 
feeling  for  the  common  men  and  women  who  make  up  the 
mass  of  humankind.  It  is  maintained  in  their  conscious  per 
sonal  picturesqueness :  Whitman  gray-bearded,  open-collared, 
wearing  his  hat  indoors  or  out ;  Mark  Twain  in  his  white 
serge,  regardless  of  season ;  and  Miller  with  long  hair,  velvet 


408        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

jacket,  and  high  boots,  —  evidence  of  the  humanizing  personal 
vanity  in  each  which  was  quite  apart  from  the  genuine  bigness 
of  their  characters.  It  follows  in  the  high  seriousness  of  all 
three.  And  it  is  confirmed  in  the  fact  of  their  early  recog 
nition  in  England  and  their  less  respectful  reception  at  home 
(see  pp.  293  and  367).  Miller,  like  these  others,  was  in  the 
70 's  what  the  Old  World  chose  to  think  the  typical  American 
ought  to  be.  He  was  fresher  to  them  than  those  other  Ameri 
cans  whom  their  countrymen  were  eagerly  describing  as  M  the 
American  Burns,"  "the  American  Wordsworth,"  "the  Amer 
ican  Scott,"  and  "the  American  Tennyson";  and  to  this 
degree  —  though  he  was  not  a  representative  of  the  prevailing 
American  literature  —  he  was  actually  a  representative  of  the 
country  itself  and  especially  of  the  vast  stretch  from  the  Missis 
sippi  to  the  Pacific.  For  Miller  and  the  America  he  knew  best 
were  both  full  of  natural  vigor,  full  of  hope  and  faith,  conscious 
of  untold  possibilities  in  the  nearer  and  the  remoter  future,  and, 
withal,  relatively  na'fve  and  unformed. 


BOOK  LIST 
Individual  Authors 

EDWARD  ROWLAND  SILL.  Works.  The  Political  Works  of.  1906. 
i  vol.  His  works  appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows :  The 
Hermitage  and  Other  Poems,  1867;  Venus  of  Milo,  and  Other 
Poems,  1883;  Poems,  1887;  The  Hermitage,  and  Later  Poems, 
1889  ;  Christmas  in  California :  a  Poem,  1 898  ;  Hermione,  and  Other 
Poems,  1899;  Prose,  1900;  Poems  (Special  Edition),  1902;  Poems 
(Household  Edition),  1906. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

The  best  biographical  study  is  Edward  Rowland  Sill :  his  Life  and 
Work,  by  W.  B.  Parker.  1915.  See  also  Modern  Poets  and  Chris 
tian  Teaching  (Gilder,  Markham,  Sill),  by  D.  G.  Downey.  1906. 

JOAQUIN  MILLER.  Works.  Bear  Edition.  1909-1910.  6vols.  A  single- 
volume  "complete"  edition  was  published  in  1892,  1897,  and  1904. 
These  appeared  in  book  form  originally  as  follows:  Specimens, 
1868;  Joaquin  et  al.,  1869;  Pacific  Poems,  1870;  Songs  of  the 
Sierras,  1871;  Songs  of  the  Sunlands,  1873;  Unwritten  History: 
Life  Amongst  the  Modocs  (with  Percival  Mulford),  1874;  The  Ship 


THE  WEST  IN  SILL  AND  MILLER  409 

in  the  Desert,  1875;  First  Families  of  the  Sierras,  1875;  Songs  of 
the  Desert,  1875;  The  One  Fair  Woman,  1876;  The  Baroness  of 
New  York,  1877  ;  Songs  of  Italy,  1878  ;  The  Danites  in  the  Sierras, 
1881;  Shadows  of  Shasta,  1881;  Poems  (Complete  Edition),  1882; 
Forty-nine:  a  California  Drama,  1882;  '49:  or,  the  Gold-seekers 
of  the  Sierras,  1884;  Memorie  and  Rime,  1884;  The  Destruction 
of  Gotham,  1886;  Songs  of  the  Mexican  Seas,  1887;  In  Classic 
Shades  and  Other  Poems,  1 890  ;  The  Building  of  the  City  Beautiful : 
a  Poetic  Romance,  1 893  ;  Songs  of  the  Soul,  1 896 ;  Chants  for  the 
Boer,  1900;  True  Bear  Stories,  1900 ;  As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning, 
1903  ;  Light:  a  Narrative  Poem,  1907. 

Biography  and  Criticism 

There  is  no  adequate  biography  or  even  biographical  study.  Of  the 
historians  of  American  literature  only  Churton  Collins,  C.  F. 
Richardson,  G.  E.  Woodberry,  and  F.  L.  Pattee  ("  American  Lit 
erature  since  1870  ")  accord  Miller  serious  attention.  The  auto 
biographical  preface  to  the  Bear  Edition  and  the  same  material 
scattered  through  the  one-volume  editions  are  the  raw  stuff  for 
interpretation  of  Miller's  character  and  aim.  These  can  be  sup 
plemented  by  his  own  article  in  the  Independent  on  "What  is 
Poetry?"  See  also  Current  Literature,  Vol.  XLVIII,  p.  574. 

See  the  historians  above  mentioned  and  the  following  review  articles  : 
Academy,  Vol.  II,  p.  301;  Vol.  LIU,  p.  181 ;  Arena,  Vol.  XII, 
p.  86;  Vol.  IX,  p.  553;  Vol.  XXXVII,  p.  271;  Current  Opinion, 
Vol.  LIV,  p.  318  ;  Dial,  Vol.  LIV,  p.  165  ;  Fraser's,  Vol.  LXXXIV, 
p.  346;  Godey's,  Vol.  XCIV,  p.  52;  Lippincotfs,  Vol.  XXXVIII, 
p.  106 ;  Munsey's,  Vol.  IX,  p.  308 ;  Nation,  Vol.  XXVII,  p.  336 ; 
Vol.  XIII,  p.  196;  Vol.  XVIII,  p.  77;  Vol.  XCVI,  pp.  169,  187, 
230,  544. 

TOPICS  AND  PROBLEMS 

Compare  the  use  of  California  and  California  life  by  Sill  with 
use  of  the  same  material  by  Joaquin  Miller  or  Bret  Harte  or 
Mark  Twain. 

Compare  Sill's  "  Hermitage  "  with  Robert  Frost's  "A  Boy's  Will." 
What  is  the  likeness  in  the  general  drift  of  the  two  and  what  are 
the  essential  differences  in  the  treatments  of  the  theme  ? 

Read  W.  B.  Parker's  "Life  of  Sill"  with  especial  reference  to 
Sill's  letters  and  the  degree  to  which  they  reveal  his  humor  and 
his  seriousness.  Note  poems  which  correspond  in  spirit  or  in  content 
with  given  letters. 


410        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Compare  the  treatment  of  primitive  Western  life  and  adventure  by 
Miller  with  use  of  the  same  material  by  Mark  Twain  or  Bret  Harte. 

Read  Miller  for  evidences  of  literary  influence  upon  him  of  Scott 
or  Byron  or  Coleridge  or  Browning. 

Read  Miller's  "  Song  of  the  South  "  and  his  explanatory  remarks 
on  it  and  compare  Longfellow's  treatment  of  the  Mississippi;  or 
compare  Masters's  preface  to  his  volume  "  Toward  the  Gulf  "  and 
his  poems  on  the  same  subject. 

Note  the  insistence  of  Miller  on  the  idea  that  life  is  power  and  in 
his  later  poems  the  increasing  respect  for  reflection. 

Compare  Miller's  "  Columbus  "  with  Lowell's  "  Columbus  "  and 
Lanier's  "  Sonnets  on  Columbus." 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  RISE  OF  FICTION;  WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS 

It  is  very  seldom  in  the  history  of  literature  that  important 
developments  take  place  without  long  preliminaries.  From 
period  to  period  new  emphasis  is  placed  on  old  ideas,  and  old 
forms  are  given  the  right  of  way  in  literary  fashion.  In  the 
course  of  American  literature,  roughly  speaking,  the  dominating 
forms  of  literature  have  been  in  succession  :  exposition  and 
travel  during  the  colonial  period ;  poetry,  satirical  and  epic,  in 
the  Revolutionary  period ;  poetry  in  all  its  broader  aspects 
during  the  first  two  thirds  of  the  nineteenth  century.  After 
the  Civil  War  for  fifty  years  fiction  came  to  the  front ;  from 
about  1900  on  a  new  emphasis  was  given  to  the  stage  and 
the  playwright ;  at  present  the  most  striking  fact  in  world 
literature  is  the  broadening  and  deepening  of  the  poetic  cur 
rents  again.  Yet  all  of  these  forms  are  always  existent.  To 
speak  of  the  rise  of  fiction,  then,  is  simply  to  acknowledge 
the  increased  attention  which  for  a  period  it  demanded. 

It  is  frequently  said  that  America's  chief  contribution  to 
world  literature  has  been  the  short  story  as  developed  since 
the  Civil  War.  Yet  in  America  the  ground  had  been  prepared 
for  this  development  by  many  writers,  —  among  them,  as 
already  mentioned  in  this  history,  Washington  Irving  with 
"The  Sketch  Book"  in  1819  (see  pp.  118-131),  Hawthorne 
with  "Twice-Told  Tales  "  in  1838  (see  pp.  240  and  243),  Poe 
with  his  various  contributions  to  periodical  literature  in  the 
i84o's  (see  pp.  185-187),  Mark  Twain  with  "The  Jumping 
Frog"  of  1867,  Bret  Harte  with  "The  Luck  of  Roaring 
Camp  "  of  1870  and  the  great  bulk  of  his  subsequent  contribu 
tions  (see  p.  381),  and  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  with  "  Marjorie 

411 


412        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Daw"  of  1873  and  his  other  volumes  of  short  stories.  In  the 
meanwhile  the  novel  had  had  its  consecutive  history  —  from 
Brockden  Brown  beginning  with  1/98  (see  pp.  100-109)  to 
Cooper  in  1820  (see  pp.  141-157),  William  Gilmore  Simms 
from  1833  (see  p.  344),  Hawthorne  from  1850  on  (see  pp. 
236-251),  Mrs.  Stowe  from  1852  (see  pp.  299-309),  and 
Holmes  from  1861  (see  pp.  320,  321).  And  these  writers  of 
short  and  long  fiction  are  only  the  outstanding  story-tellers  in 
America  between  the  beginning  of  the  century  and  the  years 
just  after  the  Civil  War. 

In  a  chapter  such  as  this  no  exhaustive  survey  is  possible, 
for  it  involves  scores  of  writers  and  hundreds  of  books.  The 
vital  movement  started  with  a  fresh  and  vivid  treatment  of 
native  American  material,  and  it  moved  in  a  great  sweeping 
curve  from  the  West  down  past  the  Gulf  up  through  the 
southeastern  states  into  New  England,  across  to  the  Middle 
West,  and  back  into  the  Ohio  valley  until  every  part  of  the 
country  was  represented  by  its  expositors.  The  course  of  this 
newer  provincial  fiction  is  suggested  by  the  mention  of  Mark 
Twain's  "Jumping  Frog"  (1867,  California),  "The  Luck  of 
Roaring  Camp"  of  Bret  Harte  (1870,  California),  G.  W. 
Cable's  "Old  Creole  Days"  (1879,  Louisiana),  "Nights  with 
Uncle  Remus,"  by  Joel  Chandler  Harris  (1880,  Georgia),  "  In 
the  Tennessee  Mountains,"  by  Charles  Egbert  Craddock  (1884), 
"  In  old  Virginia,"  by  Thomas  Nelson  Page  (1887),  "A  New 
England  Nun,"  by  Mary  E.  Wilkins  Freeman  (1891),  "Main- 
Travelled  Roads,"  by  Hamlin  Garland  (1891,  the  Middle  West), 
* '  Flute  and  Violin, ' '  by  James  Lane  Allen  ( 1 89 1 ,  the  Ohio  valley) . 

WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS  (1837-        ) 

The  preeminent  figure  in  the  field  of  American  fiction 
during  the  last  half  century  has  been  William  Dean  Howells, 
a  man  who  is  widely  representative  of  the  broad  literary 
development  in  the  country  and  worthy  of  careful  study  as  an 
artist  and  as  a  critic  of  life.  Although  he  has  been  an 


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4  H        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Easterner  by  residence  for  nearly  half  a  century,  he  is  the 
greatest  contribution  of  the  West  —  or  what  was  West  in  his 
youth  —  to  Eastern  life  and  thought. 

He  was  born  in  1837  at  Martins  Ferry,  Ohio,  —  the  second 
of  eight  children.  Perhaps  the  richness  of  his  character  is 
accounted  for  by  the  varied  strains  in  his  ancestry.  On  his 
father's  side  his  people  were  wholly  Welsh  except  his  English 
great-grandmother,  and  on  his  mother's  wholly  German  except 
his  Irish  grandfather.  His  mother  he  has  described  as  the 
heart  of  the  family,  and  his  father  as  the  soul.  The  family 
fortunes  were  in  money  ways  unsuccessful.  His  father's  expe 
rience  as  a  country  editor  took  him  from  place  to  place  in  a 
succession  of  ventures  which  were  harrassed  by  uncertain 
income  and  heavy  debts.  These  were  always  paid,  but  only  by 
dint  of  unceasing  effort.  The  Howells  family  were,  however, 
happy  in  their  concord  and  in  their  daily  enjoyment  of  the 
best  that  books  could  bring  them.  Unlike  many  another  youth 
who  has  struggled  into  literary  fame,  William  Dean  found  a 
ready  sympathy  with  his  ambitions  at  home.  His  experience 
was  less  like  Whitman's  than  Bryant's.  From  childhood  the 
printing  office  was  his  school  and  almost  his  only  school,  for 
the  district  teachers  had  little  to  offer  a  child  of  literary 
parentage  "  whose  sense  was  open  to  every  intimation  of 
beauty."  Very  early  his  desire  for  learning  led  him  into  what 
he  called  M  self -conducted  inquiries  "  in  foreign  languages  ;  and 
with  the  help  of  a  "  sixteen-bladed  grammar,"  a  nondescript 
polyglot  affair,  he  acquired  in  turn  a  reading  knowledge  of 
Latin,  Greek,  Spanish,  German,  French,  and  Italian.  In  the 
meanwhile  he  was  reading  and  assimilating  the  popular  English 
favorites.  It  was  typical  of  his  experience  that  Longfellow  led 
him  to  his  first  studies  of  the  Spanish  language,  bringing  him 
back  to  Spain,  where  he  had  traveled  in  fancy  with  Irving. 
Always  he  was  writing,  for  his  life  was  "  filled  with  literature 
to  bursting,"  and  always  imitating  —  now  Pope,  now  Heine, 
now  Cervantes,  now  Shakespeare. 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  415 

As  a  printer  on  country  journals  he  had  the  opportunity  to 
place  his  own  wares  before  the  public,  often  composing  in  type 
without  ever  putting  pen  to  paper.  His  father  encouraged 
him  to  contribute  to  journals  of  larger  circulation,  and  the 
experience  naturally  led  him  into  professional  journalism  before 
he  was  of  age.  It  led  him  also  to  Columbus,  the  state  capital, 
where  he  reported  the  proceedings  of  the  legislature  and  in 
time  rose  to  the  dignity  of  editorial  writer.  During  these 
years  of  late  youth  and  early  manhood  his  aspirations  were 
like  Bret  Harte's,  all  in  the  direction  of  poetry,  and  his  earliest 
book  was  a  joint  effort  with  James  J.  Piatt,  "  Poems  of  Two 
Friends,"  1859.  This  was  a  typical  experience  in  literary 
history.  Again  and  again  at  the  period  of  a  change  to  a 
new  form  or,  better,  a  revived  artistic  form,  the  literary  youth 
has  started  to  write  in  the  declining  fashion  of  his  day  and 
has  been  carried  over  into  the  rising  vogue.  "  Paradise  Lost " 
was  first  conceived  of  as  a  five-act  tragedy.  "  Amelia  "  and 
"  Tom  Jones "  were  preceded  by  twenty-odd  unsuccessful 
comedies.  "  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  "  and  "  Marmion  " 
and  "The  Lady  of  the  Lake  "  were  all  preliminary  to  "  Waverley  " 
and  the  tide  of  novels  that  followed.  In  1860  Howells  had 
five  poems  in  the  Atlantic  and  had  no  expectation  of  writing 
fiction ;  and  it  was  another  full  decade,  after  the  publication 
of  several  volumes  of  sketches  and  travel  observations,  before 
he  was  fairly  launched  on  his  real  career. 

In  Columbus  he  had  come  by  1860  to  a  full  enjoyment  of 
an  eager,  book-loving  group.  He  was  working  enthusiastically 
as  a  journalist,  but  his  knowledge  of  politics  and  statecraft  did 
not  bring  him  to  any  vivid  sense  of  the  social  order.  "What 
I  wished  to  do  always  and  evermore  was  to  think  and  dream 
and  talk  literature,  and  literature  only,  whether  in  its  form  of 
prose  or  of  verse,  in  fiction,  or  poetry,  or  criticism.  I  held  it 
a  higher  happiness  to  stop  at  a  street  corner  with  a  congenial 
young  lawyer  and  enter  upon  a  fond  discussion  of,  say, 
De  Quincey's  essays  than  to  prove  myself  worthy  the  respect 


41 6        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  any  most  eminent  citizen  who  knew  not  or  loved  not 
De  Quincey."  There  was  a  succession  of  fellow-journalists 
with  whom  he  could  have  this  sort  of  pleasure,  and  there  were 
houses  in  town  where  he  could  enjoy  the  finer  pleasure  of 
talking  over  with  the  girls  the  stories  of  Thackeray  and  George 
Eliot  and  Dickens  and  Charles  Reade  as  they  appeared  in 
rapid  sequence  in  book  or  serial  form.  "It  is  as  if  we  did 
nothing  then  but  read  late  novels  and  current  serials  which  it 
was  essential  for  us  to  know  one  another's  minds  upon  down 
to  the  instant ;  other  things  might  wait,  but  these  things  were 
pressing."  During  these  years  he  developed  a  liking  for  the 
social  amenities,  of  which  an  enjoyment  of  polite  literature  was 
a  natural  expression.  Literature  was  an  adornment  of  life  and, 
as  he  saw  it,  was  confined  to  an  interpretation  of  individual 
experience. 

With  the  presidential  candidacy  of  Lincoln,  Hpwells  became 
one  of  his  campaign  biographers,  and  after  the  election  and 
a  period  of  anxious  waiting  he  received  the  appointment  as 
United  States  consul  to  Venice.  Upon  his  return  to  this 
country  he  became  an  Easterner,  settling  happily  in  Boston 
as  assistant  editor  and  then  as  editor  in  chief  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  from  1866  to  1881.  This  was  a  fulfillment  beyond 
his  highest  hopes.  The  great  New  England  group  were  at  the 
height  of  their  fame,  and  his  connection  with  the  unrivaled 
literary  periodical  of  America  brought  him  into  contact  with 
them  all.  He  was  ready  to  begin  his  own  work  as  a  writer 
of  novels. 

For  the  next  twenty  years  he  was  a  thoroughly  conventional 
artist,  gaining  satisfaction  and  giving  .pleasure  through  the 
exercise  of  his  admirable  technique.  In  this  period  he  wrote 
always,  to  borrow  an  expression  originally  applied  to  Tennyson, 
as  though  a  staid  American  matron  had  just  left  the  room  : 
a  matron  who  had  been  nurtured  on  the  reading  which  gave 
rise  to  his  own  literary  passions  —  Goldsmith,  Cervantes, 
Irving,  Longfellow,  Scott,  Pope,  Mrs.  Stowe,  Dickens,  and 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  417 

Macaulay;  a  matron,  in  short,  who  was  the  Lady  of  the 
Aroostook  at  forty-five,  the  mother  of  a  numerous  family,  and 
aggressively  concerned  that  no  book  which  fell  into  the  hands 
of  her  daughters  should  cause  the  blush  of  shame  to  rise  upon 
the  maiden  cheek.  He  wrote  not  only  on  an  early  experience 
in  the  life  of  this  lady  but  on  "A  Modern  Instance,"  "A 
Woman's  Reason,"  "  Indian  Summer,"  and,  best  of  them  all, 
"The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham."  He  was  giving  ground  to 
Mr.  Crothers's  pale-gray  pleasures  as  a  reader  in  the  time  when, 
as  he  said  :  "I  turned  eagerly  to  some  neutral  tinted  person 
who  never  had  any  adventure  greater  than  missing  the  train  to 
Dedham,  and  I  ...  analyzed  his  character,  and  agitated  myself 
in  the  attempt  to  get  at  his  feelings,  and  I  ...  verified  his 
story  by  a  careful  reference  to  the  railroad  guide.  I  ...  treated 
that  neutral  tinted  person  as  a  problem,  and  I  ...  noted  all 
the  delicate  shades  in  the  futility  of  his  conduct.  When,  on 
any  occasion  that  called  for  action,  he  did  not  know  his  own 
mind,  I  ...  admired  him  for  his  resemblance  to  so  many 
people  who  do  not  know  their  own  minds.  After  studying  the 
problem  until  I  came  to  the  last  chapter  ...  I  ...  suddenly 
gave  it  up,  and  agreed  with  the  writer  that  it  had  no  solution." 
Had  nothing  occurred  to  break  the  sequence,  he  was  on  the 
way  to  wasting  his  energy,  as  Henry  James  did,  "  in  describing 
human  rarities,  or  cases  that  are  common  enough  only  in  the 
abnormal  groups  of  men  and  women  living  on  the  fringe  of 
the  great  society  of  active,  healthy  human  beings." 

The  books  of  this  period,  in  other  words,  were  all  the  work 
of  a  well-schooled,  unprejudiced  observer  whose  ambition  was 
to  make  transcripts  of  life.  "  Venetian  Life "  and  "  Italian 
Journeys  "  were  the  first  logical  expression  of  his  desire  and 
his  capacities  —  books  of  the  same  sort  as  "  Bracebridge  Hall  " 
and  "  Outre-Mer  "  and  "  Views  Afoot  "  and  "  Our  Old  Home  " 
(see  p.  269,  note).  "  A  Foregone  Conclusion  "  and  "  A  Fearful 
Responsibility  "  simply  cross  the  narrow  bridge  between  exposi 
tion  and  fiction  but  employ  the  same  point  of  view  and  the 


41 8        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

same  technique.  Howells  was  interested  in  American  character 
and  in  the  nice  distinctions  between  the  different  levels  of 
culture.  In  "  Silas  Lapham,"  his  greatest  novel  written  be 
fore  1890,  the  blunt  Vermonter  is  set  in  contrast  with  certain 
Boston  aristocrats.  He  amasses  a  fortune,  becomes  involved 
in  speculation,  in  business  injustice,  and  in  ruin.  But  whatever 
Howells  had  to  say  then  of  social  and  economic  forces,  he 
said  of  powers  as  impersonal  as  gravitation.  Business  was 
business,  and  the  man  subjected  to  it  was  subjected  to  influences 
as  capricious  but  as  inevitable  as  the  climate  of  New  England. 

More  and  more  as  a  realist  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
presentation  of  character  at  the  expense  of  plot.  "The  art  of 
fiction,"  he  wrote  in  his  essay  on  Henry  James  in  1882,  "has 
become  a  finer  art  in  our  day  than  it  was  with  Dickens  or 
Thackeray.  We  could  not  suffer  the  confidential  attitude 
of  the  latter  now  nor  the  mannerism  of  the  former  any  more 
than  we  could  endure  the  prolixity  of  Richardson  or  the  coarse 
ness  of  Fielding.  These  great  men  are  of  the  past  —  they 
and  their  methods  and  interests  ;  even  Trollope  and  Reade 
are  not  of  the  present."  He  dismissed  moving  accidents  and 
dire  catastrophes  from  the  field  of  the  new  novel,  substituting 
for  fire  and  flood  the  slow  smolder  of  individual  resentment 
and  a  burst  of  feminine  tears.  With  "April  Hopes"  of  1887 
he  deliberately  wrote  an  unfinished  story,  following  two  young 
and  evidently  incompatible  people  to  the  marriage  altar,  but 
leaving  their  subsequent  sacrifice  to  the  imagination  of  the 
reader,  who  must  imagine  his  own  sequel  or  go  without. 

However,  when  he  was  past  fifty  he  underwent  a  social 
conversion.  And  when  he  wrote  his  next  book  about  his 
favorite  characters,  the  Marches,  he  and  they  together  risked 
"  A  Hazard  of  New  Fortunes."  He  and  they  were  no  longer 
content  to  play  at  life  under  comfortable  and  protected  circum 
stances.  They  went  down  into  the  metropolis,  competed  with 
strange  and  uncouth  people,  and  learned  something  about  pov 
erty  and  something  about  justice.  In  fact  they  learned  what 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HO  WELLS  419 

went  into  "  Annie  Kilburn "  and  "The  Quality  of  Mercy" 
and  "  The  World  of  Chance  "  and  "  A  Traveler  from  Altruria  " 
and  "  The  Eye  of  a  Needle,"  learning  it  all  through  the  new 
vision  given  by  the  belated  reading  of  a  great  European. 
Writing  from  his  heart  of  this  conversion  Mr.  Howells  says, 
in  "  My  Literary  Passions  "  : 

It  is  as  if  the  best  wine  at  this  high  feast,  where  I  have  sat  so 
long,  had  been  kept  for  the  last  and  I  need  not  deny  a  miracle  in  it 
in  order  to  attest  my  skill  in  judging  vintages.  In  fact  I  prefer 
to  believe  that  my  life  has  been  full  of  miracles,  and  that  the  good 
has  always  come  to  me  at  the  right  time,  so  that  I  could  profit  most 
by  it.  I  believe  that  if  I  had  not  turned  the  corner  of  my  fiftieth  year, 
when  I  first  knew  Tolstoy,  I  should  not  have  been  able  to  know  him 
as  fully  as  I  did.  He  has  been  to  me  that  final  consciousness,  which 
he  speaks  of  so  wisely  in  his  essay  on  Life.  I  came  in  it  to  the 
knowledge  of  myself  in  ways  I  had  not  dreamt  of  before,  and  began 
at  last  to  discern  my  relations  to  the  race,  without  which  we  are  noth 
ing.  The  supreme  art  in  literature  had  its  highest  effect  in  making  me 
set  art  forever  below  humanity,  and  it  is  with  the  wish  to  offer  the 
greatest  homage  to  his  heart  and  mind  which  any  man  can  pay 
another,  that  I  close  this  record  with  the  name  of  Lyof  Tolstoy. 

This  passage  we  can  hardly  overvaluate.  Taken  by  itself, 
it  is  merely  a  punctuation  point  in  one  author's  autobiography, 
but  seen  against  its  background  it  records  the  epoch-marking 
fact  that  in  the  very  years  when  America  as  one  expression  of 
itself  was  producing  such  native-born  spokesmen  as  Whitman 
and  Mark  Twain  and  Joaquin  Miller,  it  was  also,  in  the  spiritual 
successor  to  Longfellow  and  Lowell,  making  reverent  acknowl 
edgment,  not  to  the  splendors  of  an  ancient  civilization  but 
to  the  newest  iconoclasm  in  the  Old  World.  It  is  not  unworthy 
of  comment  that  the  influence  of  Tolstoy  was  exerted  upon 
Howells  after  his  removal  to  New  York  City,  where  he  has 
been  associated  with  the  editorial  staff  of  Harpers  Magazine 
ever  since  1881,  and  that  the  experiences  of  the  Marches  in 
their  hazard  of  new  fortunes  is  apparently  autobiographical. 


420        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

There  was  no  violent  change  in  the  material  or  method  of 
his  fiction-writing.  It  was  simply  enriched  with  a  new  purpose. 
To  his  old  power  to  portray  the  individual  in  his  mental  and 
emotional  processes  he  added  a  criticism  of  the  role  the  indi 
vidual  played  in  society.  He  added  a  new  consciousness  of  the 
institution  of  which  the  individual  was  always  the  creator,  some 
times  the  beneficiary,  and  all  too  often  the  victim.  His  maturity 
as  a  man  and  as  a  writer  secured  him  in  his  human  and  artistic 
equilibrium,  and  in  this  degree  has  distinguished  him  from 
younger  authors  who  have  written  with  the  same  convictions 
and  purposes.  He  has  written  no  novels  as  extreme  as  Sinclair's 
"  The  Jungle,"  which  ends  with  a  diatribe  on  socialism,  although 
he  has  been  a  socialist ;  he  has  written  nothing  quite  so  in 
sistent  as  Whitlock's  "The  Turn  of  the  Balance,"  although  he 
has  been  keenly  aware  of  the  difference  between  justice  and  the 
operation  of  the  legal  system.  Every  story  has  contained  a 
recognition  that  life  is  infinitely  complex,  with  a  great  deal  of 
redeeming  and  a  great  deal  of  unintelligent  and  baffling  good 
in  it.  Furthermore,  he  has  written  always  out  of  his  own 
experience  and  with  all  his  old  skill  as  a  novelist,  so  that  he 
has  never  done  anything  so  clumsily  commendable  as  Page's 
"John  Marvel,  Assistant"  or  anything  so  clearly  prepared  for 
by  painstaking  study  as  Churchill's  "  The  Inside  of  the  Cup." 

By  1894  Howells  had  come  to  the  point  where  he  wished 
to  present  his  social  thesis  as  a  thesis,  and  he  did  so  in  "A 
Traveler  from  Altruria,"  which  is  not  a  novel  at  all  but  a  series 
of  conversations  on  the  nature  of  American  life  as  contrasted 
with  life  in  an  ideal  state.  Mr.  Homos  from  Altruria  (Mr.  Man 
from  Other  Land)  is  the  traveler  who  gets  his  first  impressions 
of  America  by  visiting  a  conservative  novelist,  Mr.  Twelvemough, 
at  a  summer  resort  in  which  the  hotel  furnishes  "  a  sort  of 
microcosm  of  the  American  republic."  Here,  in  addition  to  the 
host,  are  an  enlightened  banker,  a  complacent  manufacturer,  an 
intolerant  professor  of  economics,  a  lawyer,  a  minister,  and  a 
society  woman  "  who  as  a  cultivated  American  woman  .  .  .  was 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  — HOWELLS  421 

necessarily  quite  ignorant  of  her  own  country,  geographically, 
politically  and  historically  ' ' ;  and  here  also  are  the  hotel  keeper, 
the  baggage  porter,  a  set  of  college-girl  waitresses,  and  a  sur 
rounding  population  of  "  natives,"  as  the  summer  resorter  invid 
iously  describes  the  inhabitants  whom  he  does  n't  quite  dare  to 
call  peasants.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  essay  the  social  cleav 
ages  are  embarrassingly  revealed,  —  the  ignominy  of  being  a 
manual  laborer  or,  worse  still,  a  domestic  servant,  and  the  con 
sequent  struggle  to  escape  from  toil  and  all  the  conditions  that 
surround  it.  This  leads  quickly  to  a  study  of  the  economic 
situation  in  a  republic  where  every  man  is  for  himself. 

When  pinned  by  embarrassing  questions  the  defenders  of 
the  American  faith  take  refuge  in  what  they  regard  as  the  static 
quality  of  human  nature,  but  are  further  embarrassed  by  the 
Altrurian's  innocent  surprise  at  their  tactics.  He  does  not 
understand  that  it  is  in  human  nature  for  the  first-come  to  be 
first  served,  or  for  every  man  to  be  for  himself,  or  for  a  man 
"  to  squeeze  his  brother  man  when  he  gets  him  in  his  grip,"  or 
for  employers  to  take  it  out  of  objecting  employees  in  any  way 
they  can.  To  Mr.  Twelvemough  it  is  a  matter  of  doubt  as  to 
whether  the  traveler  is  ironically  astute  or  innocently  simple  in  his 
implication  that  even  human  nature  is  subject  to  development. 

The  latter  two  thirds  of  the  book  are  a  composite  indictment 
of  an  economic  system  which  permits  slavery  in  everything  but 
name  and  which  extols  the  rights  of  the  individual  only  as  they 
apply  to  the  property  holder.  This  culminates  with  the  con 
cluding  lecture  by  the  Altrurian  —  an  "  account  of  his  own  coun 
try,  which  grew  more  and  more  incredible  as  he  went  on,  and 
implied  every  insulting  criticism  of  ours."  The  book  concludes  : 

We  parted  friends ;  I  even  offered  him  some  introductions ;  but 
his  acquaintance  had  become  more  and  more  difficult,  and  I  was  not 
sorry  to  part  with  him.  That  taste  of  his  for  low  company  was  in 
curable,  and  I  was  glad  that  I  was  not  to  be  responsible  any  longer 
for  whatever  strange  thing  he  might  do  next.  I  think  he  remained 
very  popular  with  the  classes  he  most  affected ;  a  throng  of  natives, 


422        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

construction  hands,  and  table-girls  saw  him  off  on  his  train ;  and  he  left 
large  numbers  of  such  admirers  in  our  house  and  neighborhood,  devout 
in  the  faith  that  there  was  such  a  commonwealth  as  Altruria,  and  that 
he  was  really  an  Altrurian.  As  for  the  more  cultivated  people  who 
had  met  him,  they  continued  of  two  minds  upon  both  points. 

These  are  the  convictions  which  dominate  in  all  the  later 
works.  On  the  whole  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  novels  of  so 
radical  a  thesis  have  attracted  so  little  opposition.  Never  was 
an  iconoclast  received  with  such  unintelligent  tolerance.  The 
suavity  of  his  manner,  the  continued  appearance  of  his  books 
of  travel  and  observation,  the  recurrence  (as  in  "The  Kentons") 
to  his  old  type  of  work  or  the  resort  (as  in  the  long  unpublished 
"  Leatherwood  God")  to  fresh  woods  and  pastures  new,  and 
all  the  while  the  humorous  presentation  of  his  favorite  char 
acters,  particularly  the  bumptious  young  business  man  and  the 
whimsically  incoherent  American  woman,  beguile  his  readers 
into  a  blind  and  bland  assumption  of  Mr.  Howells's  harmless- 
ness.  Possibly  because  they  have  been  less  skillful  and  more 
explicit,  novel  after  novel  from  younger  hands  has  excited  criti 
cism  and  the  healthy  opposition  which  prove  that  the  truth  has 
struck  home.  Perhaps  his  largest  influence  being  indirectly 
exerted,  his  lack  of  sensationalism  or  sentimentalism  debar  him 
from  the  "  best-seller  "  class ;  but  for  fifty  years  he  has  been 
consistently  followed  by  the  best-reading  class,  and  no  novelist 
of  the  newer  generation  has  been  unconscious  of  his  work. 

Henry  James  (1843-1916),  whose  work  in  some  respects  has 
been  comparable  to  that  of  Howells,  was  a  writer  of  so  distinct 
an  individuality  that  he  has  been  the  subject  of  much  criticism 
and  no  little  amiable  controversy.  Born  in  New  York  of  lit 
erary  parentage,  educated  in  the  university  towns  of  Europe, 
and  resident  most  of  his  life  abroad,  he  developed  into  an  in 
ternational  novelist,  chiefly  interested  in  the  various  shades  of 
the  contrasting  cultures  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New.  Of  his 
subject  matter  one  story  is  about  as  good  an  example  as  another, 
for  James  was  remarkably  consistent.  The  backgrounds  are 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  423 

almost  always  intercontinental  or  transatlantic.  The  characters 
belong  to  the  leisure  class.  The  episodes,  where  they  exist,  are 
adventures  of  the  mind.  In  the  earlier  stories,  such  as  "  The 
American"  (1877),  plot  is  more  eventful  and  definitive  and  style 
is  more  lucid  than  in  the  later  ones.  In  these  James  seemed 
to  be  so  fascinated  with  his  intricate  discriminations  of  feeling 
that  he  confined  himself  largely  to  psychological  analysis  in  a 
style  which  became  increasingly  obscured  by  subtle  indirections. 
Thus  "  The  Awkward  Age  "  (1899)  is  a  narrative  in  ten  short 
"  books  "  centering  about  the  marriage  and  non-marriage  of  two 
London  girls.  Aggie,  who  has  been  brought  up  in  the  fashion 
of  Richard  Feverel  translated  into  feminine  terms,  is  married 
off  to  a  wealthy  and  decent  man  twice  her  age,  and  after  a 
short  experience  turns  out  to  be  altogether  unfitted  for  his 
degree  of  sophistication.  Nanda,  wise  from  £he  beginning,  fails 
to  win  the  most  attractive  man  of  the  lot,  and  in  the  end  is 
adopted  and  carried  off  to  the  country  by  a  charming  old  Vic 
torian  gentleman.  Nothing  objective  happens.  The  tale  is  told 
in  ten  long  conversations,  each  entitled  for  one  of  the  chief 
characters  and  occupying  most  of  one  of  the  books.  All  the 
characters  talk  with  circuitous  elusiveness,  and  all  employ  the 
same  idiom,  with  the  single  exception  of  Aggie  in  her  first  two 
appearances,  when  she  is  supposed  to  be  hopelessly  ingenuous- 
In  his  attitude  toward  these  people  James  put  himself  in  a 
somewhat  equivocal  position.  With  their  general  social  and 
spiritual  insufficiency  he  had  no  patience.  They  represent  the 
world  of  ''Vanity  Fair"  and  "The  Newcomes  "  done  down 
to  date.  But  at  the  time  he  betrayed  a  lurking  admiration  for 
them,  their  ways,  and  their  attitude  toward  life.  Like  the  rest 
of  his  stories,  "  The  Awkward  Age  "  has  little  to  do  with  the 
world  of  affairs  in  any  group  aspect.  It  is  like  a  piece  of  Swiss 
carving  on  ivory.  It  has  the  same  marvelous  minuteness  of 
detail,  the  same  inutility,  the  same  remote  and  attenuated 
relationship  to  any  deep  emotional  experience  or  vigorous 
human  endeavor.  Unless  one  is  devoted  to  the  gospel  of  art 


424        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

for  art's  sake,  one  cannot  appreciate  the  good  of  this  sort  of 
endeavor.  In  his  narrowly  limited  field  Mr.  James  is  a  master. 
For  more  than  forty  years  and  in  more  than  thirty  volumes  he 
did  the  thing  that  he  elected  to  without  compromise  in  behalf 
of  popularity.  Yet  admire  him  as  much  as  they  may,  most 
readers  turn  from  him  with  relief  to  the  literature  of  activity 
and  of  the  normal,  healthy  human  beings  who  are  seldom  to 
be  encountered  in  the  pages  of  Henry  James. 

Before  mentioning  in  detail  the  types  of  American  realistic 
novel  which  have  followed  on  the  work  of  Mr.  Howells,  some 
thing  should  be  said  about  the  very  considerable  output  of 
romantic  fiction  of  which  he  has  been  strangely  intolerant ; 
for  it  is  strange  that  a  man  of  his  gentle  generosity  should  be 
so  insistent  on  the  wrongness  of  an  artistic  point  of  view  which 
is  complementary  to  his  own,  though  different  from  it.  Dis 
tinctions  between  romance  and  realism  often  lead  into  a  dangerous 
"  no  man's  land,"  and  discussions  of  the  term  are  harder  to 
close  than  to  begin.  However,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  contention 
that  the  essence  of  romance  lies  in  remoteness  and  the  glamour 
of  unfamiliarity  —  though  not  inclusive  of  all  romance  —  will 
serve  as  an  index  for  grouping  here. 

In  1879,  1880,  and  1882  three  men,  the  first  of  whom  is 
still  producing,  set  out  on  long  careers  of  popularity.  They 
were  George  W.  Cable  (1844-  ),  Joel  Chandler  Harris 
(i848-i9o8),and  F.Marion  Crawford  (1854-1909).  Mr. Cable's 
contribution  has  been  the  interpretation  of  the  elusive  and  fas 
cinating  character  of  the  New  Orleans  Creole.  Cable  was  bred 
in  the  river  port  when  the  old  part  of  the  city  was  less  like  the 
decaying  heart  of  a  mushroom  than  it  is  to-day.  He  grew  up 
in  an  understanding  of  the  courtly,  high-spirited  gentry  of  this 
exotic  people,  not  studying  either  the  people  or  their  traditions 
for  the  sake  of  writing  them  up.  He  felt  the  beauty,  but  no 
less  the  futility,  of  their  life.  He  was  in  no  hurry  to  write  for 
publication,  but  when  he  did  so  his  fame  was  soon  made.  His 
subsequent  departure  from  the  South  and  his  settling  in  New 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  425 

England  seemed  to  many  critics  to  be  an  abandonment  of  the 
richest  field  that  life  had  to  offer  him.  It  was  said  for  years, 
until  it  became  one  of  the  literary  commonplaces,  that  Mr.  Cable 
would  never  again  rise  to  the  level  of  "  Old  Creole  Days  "  (1879), 
"The  Grandissimes  "  (1880),  or  "Madame  Delphine  "  (1881). 
The  fourteen  volumes  of  the  next  third  of  a  century  seemed  to 
fulfill  this  dreary  prophecy.  Yet  all  the  time  the  South  was  the 
home  of  his  imagination,  and  with  1918  he  gave  the  lie  to  all 
his  Jeremiahs.  The  "  Lovers  of  Louisiana  "  has  quite  as  fine 
a  touch  as  the  works  of  nearly  forty  years  ago.  Mr.  Cable 
sees  the  old  charm  in  this  life  of  an  echoing  past  and  the  same 
fatuousness.  At  this  distance  into  the  twentieth  century  he 
leads  his  old  characters  and  their  children  by  new  paths  into 
the  future,  but  he  presents  the  graces  of  their  obsolescent  life 
in  the  familiar  narrative  style  of  his  early  successes  —  a  style 
as  fleeting  yet  as  distinctive  as  the  aroma  of  old  lace. 

Joel  Chandler  Harris,  like  George  W.  Cable,  did  his  work 
in  presenting  the  life  of  a  vanishing  race  —  the  antebellum 
negro.  He  finished  off  his  formal  education,  which  ended  when 
he  was  twelve,  with  the  schooling  of  the  printing  shop,  and 
passed  from  this  into  journalistic  work  with  a  succession  of 
papers,  of  which  the  Atlanta  Constitution  is  best  known.  Boy 
life  on  the  plantation  gave  him  his  material  in  the  folklore  of 
the  negro,  and  a  chance  bit  of  substituting  gave  him  his  very 
casual  start  as  the  creator  of  "  Uncle  Remus."  Northern  readers 
were  quick  to  recognize  that  Harris  had  given  a  habitation  and 
a  name  to  the  narrative  stuff  that  folklorists  had  already  begun 
to  collect  and  collate.  The  material  goes  back  to  the  farthest 
sources  of  human  tradition,  but  "Uncle  Remus"  was  a  new 
story-teller  with  a  gift  amounting  to  little  short  of  genius.  So 
his  stories  have  the  double  charm  of  recording  the  lore  of  the 
negro  and  of  revealing  his  humor,  his  transparent  deceitful- 
ness,  his  love  of  parade,  his  superstition,  his  basic  religious  feel 
ing,  and  his  pathos.  Harris  seemed  to  draw  his  material  from  a 
bottomless  spring.  Starting  with  "  Uncle  Remus :  his  Songs 


426        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

and  Sayings"  in  1881,  Harris  produced  six  other  volumes  in 
the  next  ten  years  and  brought  the  total  to  fourteen  in  folk 
stories  alone  before  his  death  in  1908.  As  the  aptest  of  criti 
cisms  on  his  own  work,  one  of  his  admirers  has  well  quoted 
Harris's  comment  on  a  book  of  Mark  Twain :  "  It  is  history, 
it  is  romance,  it  is  life.  Here  we  behold  a  human  character 
stripped  of  all  tiresome  details ;  we  see  people  growing  and 
living ;  we  laugh  at  their  humor,  share  their  griefs,  and,  in  the 
midst  of  it  all,  behold,  we  are  taught  the  lesson  of  honesty, 
justice  and  mercy." 

The  fluent  romance  of  Marion  Crawford  is  of  a  different  and 
a  lower  order.  He  was  a  sort  of  professional  cosmopolitan,  - 
American  by  birth,  educated  largely  abroad,  widely  traveled, 
and  resident  for  most  of  his  maturity  on  the  Bay  of  Naples. 
He  could  turn  off  romances  of  Persia,  of  Constantinople,  of 
Arabia,  of  medieval  Venice,  of  Rome,  and  of  England  with  about 
equal  success.  He  had  no  great  artistic  purpose,  admitting  com 
placently  that  he  was  not  great  enough  to  be  a  poet  or  clever 
enough  to  be  a  successful  playwright.  He  had  no  ethical  pur 
pose.  He  had  not  even  a  high  ideal  of  craftsmanship,  putting 
out  eight  volumes  in  1903  and  1904  alone.  He  deserves  men 
tion  as  a  prolific  and  self-respecting  entertainer  who  converted 
his  knowledge  of  the  world  into  a  salable  commodity  and 
established  a  large  market  for  his  superficial  romances. 

With  the  turn  of  the  century  —  almost  two  decades  after  the 
de"buts  of  Cable,  Harris,  and  Crawford  —  a  new  interest  began 
to  spread  from  the  collegians  to  the  reading  public  as  a  whole, 
the  same  influences  which  were  producing  as  leaders  in 
the  scholastic  field  Von  Hoist,  Channing,  McMaster,  Hart, 
Jameson,  and  McLaughlin  —  masters  of  American  history  — 
extending  to  the  people  at  large.  In  1897  appeared  Weir 
Mitchell's  "  Hugh  Wynne."  In  the  spring  of  1898  came  the 
war  with  Spain.  In  1899  Ford's  "Janice  Meredith"  and 
Churchill's  "  Richard  Carvel "  were  published ;  in  1900,  Mary 
Johnston's  "  To  Have  and  to  Hold  "  ;  and  in  1901  Churchill's 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  427 

"  The  Crisis  " — four  novels  which  by  the  end  of  the  latter  year 
had  reached  a  combined  sale  of  1,200,000  copies.  For  a  little 
while  the  vogue  of  the  historical  romance  passed  all  recent 
precedent.  The  natural  zest  for  stories  of  olden  days  was 
reenforced  by  the  revival  of  national  feeling,  and  the  popular 
authors  of  the  moment  reaped  a  golden  harvest  from  the  public, 
whom  they  at  once  charmed  and  instructed. 

In  the  meanwhile,  however,  the  describers  and  critics  of 
contemporary  American  life  were  by  no  means  on  the  wane. 
In  the  shifting  currents  of  fiction  various  types  of  realism  have 
come  to  the  surface  and  are  conspicuous  in  the  tide.  They  all 
fall  under  the  definition  formulated  by  Mr.  Perry :  the  sort  of 
fiction  that  "does  not  shrink  from  the  commonplace  or  from 
the  unpleasant  in  its  effort  to  depict  things  as  they  are  and 
life  as  it  is  ";  but  within  this  definition  they  may  be  separated 
into  two  main  classes.  The  first  is  the  type  that  begins  and 
ends  with  portrayal  of  human  life,  deals  with  the  individual, 
and  aims  only  to  please.  The  second  is  written  with  the  intent 
of  pronouncing  a  criticism  on  the  ways  of  men  as  they  live  to 
gether,  presents  its  characters  against  a  social  and  institutional 
background,  and  aims  to  influence  the  opinions  of  its  readers. 
The  difference  between  the  two  is,  of  course,  the  difference 
between  the  earlier  and  the  later  novels  of  Mr.  Howells.  In 
his  later  studies  Mr.  Howells  is  always  dealing  unaggressively 
but  searchingly  with  the  problem  of  economic  justice,  but  this  is 
only  one  of  three  broad  fields.  All  modern  problem  and  purpose 
novels  are  devoted,  simply  or  complexly,  to  the  market  — 
property;  the  altar — religion  ;  and  the  hearthstone  —  domestic 
life.  This  classification,  which  is  useful  only  as  long  as  it  is  em 
ployed  cautiously  for  a  general  guide,  leads  to  a  cross-survey  of 
recent  fiction  by  kinds  rather  than  by  individual  authors. 

The  number  of  more  or  less  successful  portrayers  of  provin 
cial  types  in  American  fiction  defies  even  enumeration.  The 
most  effective  have,  however,  been  unsatisfied  with  depicting 
the  mere  idiosyncrasies  of  a  region  heavily  propped  by  dialect 


428        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

and  have  gone  on  to  the  interpretation  of  life  as  it  might 
express  itself  anywhere  under  similar  conditions.  Thus  the 
"Old  Chester"  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Deland  (1857-  )  is  a 
study  of  isolated  conservatisms  thrown  into  relief  by  the  wise 
sanity  of  Dr.  Lavendar.  Old  Chester,  we  are  told,  is  in  Penn 
sylvania.  It  might  be  in  any  state  or  country  where  narrow 
respectability  could  intrench  itself.  It  is  an  American  Cran- 
ford.  In  the  "Old  Chester  Tales"  (1898)  "The  Promises 
of  Dorothea  "  involve  her  utterly  respectable  elopement  with 
Mr.  King,  whose  worst  offense  in  the  eyes  of  her  guardian 
maiden  aunts  is  that  he  has  lived  abroad  for  many  years.  The 
implied  departure  from  Old  Chester  customs  is  sufficient  con 
demnation.  "Good  for  the  Soul"  culminates  with  the  doctor's 
sensible  advice  to  Elizabeth  Day,  who,  at  the  end  of  twelve 
years  of  happy  marriage,  is  oppressed  by  the  memory  of  a 
Bohemian  girlhood  of  which  her  husband  is  ignorant.  "  Sup 
pose,"  said  the  doctor,  "I  hadn't  found  her  a  good  woman, 
should  I  have  told  her  to  hold  her  tongue?  "  "The  Child's 
Mother  "  is  the  story  of  an  unregenerate  whose  baby  Dr.  Lav 
endar  keeps  away  from  her  by  a  process  we  should  call  black 
mail  if  it  were  not  practiced  by  a  saint.  Wide  and  varied  as 
her  output  is,  Mrs.  Deland  has  nowhere  shown  her  artistry 
more  finely  than  in  the  two  Dr.  Lavendar  volumes. 

The  comments  of  Edith  Wharton  (1862-  )  on  Ameri 
can  life  are  from  the  cosmopolitan  point  of  View  and  present  a 
series  of  pictures  of  the  American  woman  which  for  harshness 
of  uncharity  are  difficult  to  parallel.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Amer 
ica  is  so  vast  and  varied  that  there  is  no  national  type  of  woman. 
Mrs.  Wharton's  women  are  representative  of  one  stratum  just 
as  Christy's  pictorial  girls  are.  They  are  the  product  of  indul 
gence  which  makes  them  hard,  capricious,  and  completely 
selfish.  Lily  Bart  of  "The  House  of  Mirth"  (1905)  begins 
high  in  the  social  scale,  compromises  reluctantly  with  moneyed 
ambition,  and  in  one  instance  after  another  defeats  herself  by 
delay  and  equivocation  in  a  declining  series  of  "affairs."  More 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  429 

approachable  than  irreproachable,  she  suffers  from  the  social 
beclouding  of  her  reputation  and,  in  the  end,  as  a  consequence 
of  her  low  standards  but  her  lack  of  shamelessness  she  suc 
cumbs  to  the  circumstances  that  created  her  and  arrives  at  a 
miserable  death.  Undine  Spragg,  in  "  The  Custom  of  the 
Country"  (1913),  first  married  and  divorced  in  a  Western 
town  is  then  brought  to  New  York,  introduced  into  society 
and  "  made  "  by  her  good  looks  and  her  brazen  ambition.  She 
wrecks  the  life  of  her  second  husband,  a  refined  gentleman, 
and  then  as  a  result  of  much  foreign  residence  marries  a 
Frenchman  of  family.  From  him  she  runs  away,  finally  to  re 
marry  Moffatt,  who,  throughout  the  story,  has  been  her  familiar 
spirit,  subtly  revealing  his  intimacy  of  feeling,  and  increasing 
his  hold  upon  her  as  he  rises  in  the  money  world.  The  title 
gives  the  cue  to  the  story  as  a  whole  and  to  its  several  parts. 
By  nature  Undine  is  coarse-grained,  showy,  and  selfish ;  by 
upbringing  she  becomes  incorrigible.  Her  first  and  last  husband 
is  one  of  her  own  kind  —  sufficiently  so  that  he  is  capable  of 
resuming  with  her  after  her  streaky,  intermediate  career.  The 
second  is  broken  on  her  overweening  selfishness ;  the  third,  by 
virtue  of  his  ancient  family  tradition,  is  able  to  save  himself 
though  not  to  mold  or  modify  her.  At  the  end,  with  Moffatt 
and  all  his  immense  wealth,  she  is  still  confronted  by  "  the 
custom  of  the  country."  Because  of  her  divorces  "  she  could 
never  be  an  ambassador's  wife ;  and  as  she  advanced  to  wel 
come  her  first  guest  she  said  to  herself  that  it  was  the  one  part 
she  was  really  made  for."  This  is  the  Wharton  formula  :  none 
of  her  women  really  triumphs.  Lily  Bart's  downfall  is  one  with 
her  death.  She  had  breathed  the  stifling  atmosphere  from  her 
city  childhood ;  what  seemed  to  save  Undine  was  the  initial 
vigor  of  her  Western  youth,  but  even  she  could  not  successfully 
defy  the  ways  of  the  world. 

Hamlin  Garland  (1860-  )  in  1891  achieved  with  his 
"  Main-Traveled  Roads "  as  quickly  earned  a  reputation  as 
Cable  and  Harris  had  done  with  their  first  volumes.  The  son 


430        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  a  sturdy  Western  pioneer,  he  had  passed  a  boyhood  of  in 
cessant  toil  before  breaking  away  to  earn  his  own  schooling, 
which  culminated  with  several  years  of  self-directed  study  in 
Boston.  A  vacation  return  in  1887  to  Wisconsin,  Dakota,  and 
Iowa  revealed  to  him  the  story-stuff  of  his  early  life,  and  during 
the  next  two  years  he  wrote  the  realistic  studies  which  won 
him  his  first  recognition.  In  them,  he  explained  later,  he  tried 
to  embody  the  stern  truth.  "  Though  conditions  have  changed 
somewhat  since  that  time,  yet  for  the  hired  man  and  the  renter 
farm  life  in  the  West  is  still  a  stern  round  of  drudgery.  My 
pages  present  it — not  as  the  summer  boarder  or  the  young 
lady  novelist  sees  it  —  but  as  the  working  farmer  endures  it." 
To  the  reader  of  Mr.  Garland's  work  as  a  whole  it  is  evident 
that  the  richest  part  of  his  life  was  over  with  the  writing  of 
this  book  and  "A  Spoil  of  Office"  (1892)  and  "Rose  of 
Butcher's  Coolly"  (1895).  With  the  adoption  of  city  life  his 
interests  became  diffuse  and  miscellaneous,  as  his  writing  did 
also.  The  almost  startling  strength  of  "A  Son  of  the  Middle 
Border"  (1918)  reenforces  this  conviction,  for  this  late  piece 
of  autobiography  is  the  story  of  the  author's  first  thirty-three 
years  and  owes  its  fine  power  to  the  fact  that  in  composing 
it  Mr/Garland  renewed  his  youth  like  the  eagle's.  What 
he  propounded  in  his  booklet  of  essays,  "  Crumbling  Idols  " 
(1894),  he  illustrated  in  his  stories  up  to  that  time.  In  them 
he  made  his  best  contribution  to  American  literature,  except 
for  this  recent  reminiscent  volume.  In  almost  every  quarter 
of  the  country  similar  expositions  of  American  life  were  multi 
plied  and  to  such  an  extent  that  Mrs.  Deland,  Mrs.  Wharton, 
and  Mr.  Garland  are  chosen  simply  as  illustrations  of  an 
output  which  would  require  volumes  for  full  treatment. 

In  the  field  of  realism  which  is  concerned  with  a  criticism  of 
institutional  life,  Mrs.  Deland  wrote  a  memorable  book  in  "John 
Ward,  Preacher"  (1888).  This  was  the  same  year  in  which 
Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's  "  Robert  Elsmere "  appeared.  Both 
were  indexes  to  the  religious  unrest  of  the  whole  Victorian 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  431 

period,  —  an  unrest  apparent  in  America  since  the  rise  of  the 
Unitarians  and  the  activities  of  the  Transcendentalists,  and 
recorded  in  such  novels  as  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Oldtown  Folks " 
and  Bayard  Taylor's  "  Hannah  Thurston,"  as  well  as  in  the 
underlying  currents  of  Holmes's  Breakfast-Table  series.  The 
explicit  story  of  John  Ward  is  the  tragic  history  of  his  love 
and  marriage  with  Helen  Jaffrey.  The  implicit  story  is  based 
on  the  insufficiency  of  religious  dogma  detached  from  life. 
Mrs.  Deland's  convictions  resulted  later  in  the  genuine  strength 
of  her  best  single  character,  Dr.  Lavendar,  and  in  the  sub 
ordinate  religious  motif  of  "The  Iron  Woman"  (1910)  (see 
p.  307).  In  recent  years  the  narrative  treatment  of  the  problem 
to  attract  widest  attention  has  been  Churchill's  "  The  Inside 
of  the  Cup"  (1913),  a  story  which  one  is  tempted  to  believe 
gained  its  reading  more  from  its  author's  reputation  and  the 
prevailing  interest  in  the  problem  than  from  its  artistic  excel 
lence.  Mrs.  Stowe  and  Mrs.  Ward  wrote  out  of  long  experi 
ence  in  life ;  Mr.  Churchill  seems  rather  to  have  felt  the  need 
of  introducing  this  theme  into  his  many-volumed  exposition  of 
America  and  to  have  read  up  on  the  literature  of  the  subject 
with  the  same  thoroughness  that  characterized  his  preparation 
for  more  strictly  historical  stories. 

The  novels  of  economic  life  are  far  more  numerous  and 
more  urgent  in  tone.  One  of  the  earliest  was  John  Hay's 
"The  Breadwinners"  (1883).  It  is  significant  that  this  ap 
peared  anonymously,  the  talented  poet  and  politician  preferring 
not  to  be  known  as  a  story-teller.  The  labor  unrest  of  the 
early  8o's  disturbed  him.  Desire  for  education  seemed  to  re 
sult  unfortunately,  and  with  a  very  clear  impatience  Mr.  Hay 
expounded  the  hardships  of  wealth  in  the  midst  of  a  labor  up 
rising.  To  go  to  the  root  of  the  difficulty  did  not  seem  to  occur 
to  him.  Shortly  after  this  early  industrial  novel  Mr.  Howells 
was  to  attack  the  problem  in  a  broader  and  deeper  way  (see 
pp.  418-421).  And  while  Howells  was  still  making  his  suc 
cessive  approaches  a  whole  succession  of  younger  men  joined 


432        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

the  assault.  With  many  of  them  there  was  no  such  vital  experi 
ence  as  their  senior  had  passed  through ;  they  were  rather  writ 
ing  as  journalists  and  utilizing  the  novel,  sometimes  clumsily 
and  often  feverishly.  Few  have  done  work  which  could  at  all 
compare  with  that  of  Frank  Norris  (1870-1902).  His  inter 
rupted  trilogy  —  an  epic  of  the  wheat  —  fulfilled  the  promise  of 
his  early  efforts,  "  Vendover  and  the  Brute"  and  "McTeague," 
and  made  his  early  death  the  occasion  of  a  deep  loss.  Of  these 
three  novels  "  The  Octopus  "  (1901)  forms  the  story  of  a  crop 
of  wheat  and  deals  with  the  war  between  the  wheat-grower  and 
the  railroad  trust;  the  second,  "The  Pit"  (1903),  is  a  story 
of  the  middleman  ;  the  third,  "  The  Wolf  "  (never  written),  was 
to  have  dealt  with  the  consumption  in  Europe.  Norris 's  aspira 
tion  was  no  less  than  that  of  his  own  character  Presley,  the 
poet.  "  He  strove  for  the  diapason,  the  great  song  which  should 
embrace  in  itself  a  whole  epoch,  a  complete  era,  the  voice  of 
an  entire  people.  ..."  With  a  great  imaginative  grasp  he 
conceived  of  the  wheat  as  an  enormous,  primitive  force. 

The  Wheat  that  had  killed  Cressler,  that  had  ingulfed  Jadwin's 
fortune  and  all  but  unseated  reason  itself ;  the  Wheat  that  had  inter 
vened  like  a  great  torrent  to  drag  her  husband  from  her  side  and 
drown  him  in  the  roaring  vortices  of  the  Pit,  had  passed  on,  resist 
less,  along  its  ordered  and  predetermined  courses  from  West  to 
East,  like  a  vast  Titanic  flood,  had  passed,  leaving  Death  and  Ruin 
in  its  wake,  but  bearing  Life  and  Prosperity  to  the  crowded  cities 
and  centres  of  Europe. 

The  number  and  the  temper  of  stories  written  without  Norris 's 
breadth  of  vision  or  skill  brought  down  on  many  of  their  authors 
the  epithet  of  "muck-raker"  in  common  with  the  sensational 
writers  of  magazine  exposures.  Among  the  saner  and,  conse 
quently,  more  effective  purpose  novels  the  writings  of  Winston 
Churchill  and  Brand  Whitlock  have  helped  to  offset  the  shrill 
cries  of  Upton  Sinclair  and  Jack  London. 

The  American  novels  which  center  about  sex  and  the  family 
have  passed  through  rapid  changes  during  the  twentieth  century. 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  433 

In  1902  Mr.  Bliss  Perry,  discussing  tendencies  of  American 
novelists  in  his  "A  Study  of  Prose  Fiction,"  declared  that  the 
American  novel  was  free  from  equivocal  morality,  that  "  people 
who  want  the  sex-novel,  and  want  it  prepared  with  any  literary 
skill,  have  to  import  it  from  across  the  water,"  and  concluded 
with  the  confident  assertion  that  while  American  fiction  "  may 
not  be  national,  and  may  not  be  great,  it  will  have  at  least  the 
negative  virtue  of  being  clean."  A  few  pages  later  in  the  same 
chapter  he  made  an  observing  comment  of  which  he  failed  to 
see  the  implication  when  he  noted  that  conversation  between 
writers  of  fiction  was  likely  to  center  about  men  like  Turgenieff, 
and  Tolstoi,  Flaubert  and  Daudet,  Bjornson  and  D'Annunzio. 
The  influence  of  these  men  was  soon  to  be  felt,  both  directly 
and  through  the  medium  of  Englishmen  from  the  generation 
of  Hardy  to  that  of  Wells  and  Galsworthy.  And  within  a  dozen 
years  it  had  extended  so  far  that  the  National  Institute  of  Arts 
and  Letters  went  on  record  in  warning  and  protest  against  the 
morbid  insistency  of  an  increasing  number  of  younger  writers. 
This  wave  was  a  symptom  not  only  of  a  literary  influence  but, 
more  deeply,  of  the  world-wide  attempt  to  re-estimate  the  rights 
and  duties  and  privileges  of  womankind.  There  are  few  sub 
jects  on  which  people  of  recent  years  have  done  more  thinking, 
and  few  on  which  they  have  arrived  at  less  certain  conclusions. 
With  the  collapse  of  the  great  "conspiracy  of  silence"  that 
has  surrounded  certain  aspects  of  personal  and  family  life,  it  has 
been  natural  for  the  present  generation  to  fall  into  the  same 
errors  into  which  Whitman  had  fallen.  Naturally,  too,  the  evil 
thinker  seized  on  the  occasion  for  evil  speech.  There  has  been 
every  shade  of  expression  from  blatant  wantonness  to  high- 
minded  and  self-respecting  honesty.  Thus  we  can  account  for 
Mr.  Theodore  Dreiser,  who  seems  to  feel  that  freedom  of 
speech  should  be  gratefully  acknowledged  by  indulgence  to  the 
farthest  extreme.  And  thus  we  can  account  for  Mr.  Ernest 
Poole,  who,  in  "His  Family,"  has  presented  an  extraordinarily 
fine  summary  of  the  broad  and  perplexing  theme. 


434       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  English  novel  is  nearing  the  end  of  its  second  century 
of  influence.  It  is  a  constant  in  literature  which  will  probably 
attract  more  readers  than  any  other  single  form.  Yet  it  will 
have  its  times  of  greater  and  lesser  popularity,  and  it  seems  to 
have  passed  the  height  of  a  wave  shortly  after  1900.  First  the 
drama  came  forward  with  a  new  challenge  to  serious  attention, 
and  of  late  poetry  has  reestablished  itself  as  a  living  language. 


BOOK  LIST 
General  References 

BESANT,  SIR  WALTER.   The  Art  of  Fiction.   1 884. 
BURTON,  RICHARD.    Forces  in  Fiction.    1902. 
CRAWFORD,  F.  MARION.    The  Novel:  what  it  is.    1903. 
CROSS,  W.  L.    The  Development  of  the  English  Novel.    1899. 
FISKE,  H.  S.    Provincial  Types  in  American  Fiction.    1903. 
GARLAND,  HAMLIN.    Crumbling  Idols.    1894. 
HOWELLS,  W.  D.    Criticism  and  Fiction.    1895. 
HOWELLS,  W.  D.    Heroines  of  Fiction.    1901. 
JAMES,  HENRY.    The  Art  of  Fiction,  in  Partial  Portraits. 
JAMES,  HENRY.    The  New  Novel,  in  Notes  on  Novelists.   1914. 
LANIER,  SIDNEY.    The  English  Novel.    1883. 
MATTHEWS,  BRANDER.   Aspects  of  Fiction.    1 896. 
MATTHEWS,  BRANDER.    The  Historical  Novel  and  Other  Essays.   1901. 
NORRIS,  FRANK.    The  Responsibilities  of  the  Novelist.    1901. 
PATTEE,  F.  L.  American  Literature  since  1870,  chaps,  xi,  xii,  xvii.   1916. 
PERRY,  BLISS.    A  Study  of  Prose  Fiction,  chap.  xiii.    1902. 
PHELPS,  W.  L.   Essays  on  Modern  Novelists.    (Howells,  Mark  Twain.) 
1910. 

Individual  Works 

The  field  is  so  extensive  that  no  lists  of  works  by  the  authors  men 
tioned  are  included  here.  The  novels  selected  for  reading  can  be  taken 
from  the  specific  references  in  the  text.  All  the  works  are  in  print  and 
easily  available. 

Magazine  Articles 

The  magazine  articles  on  fiction  are  extremely  numerous.  From  among 
those  since  1 900  the  following  are  of  special  interest : 

1900-1904.    New  Element  in  Modern  Fiction.    N.  Boyce.    Bookman,  Vol. 

XIII,  p.  149.    April,  1901. 

Novel  and  the  Short  Story.  G.  Atherton.  Bookman,  Vol.  XVII, 
PP-  36-37-    March,  1903. 


THE  RISE  OF  FICTION  —  HOWELLS  435 

Novel  and  the  Theater.    Nation,  Vol.  LXXII,  pp.  210-211. 

March  14,  1901. 
1905-1909.    Confessions  of  a  Best-Seller.   Atlantic,  Vol.  CIV,  pp.  577-585. 

November,  1909. 
Convention  of  Romance.    Bookman,  Vol.  XXVI,  pp.  266-267. 

November,  1907. 
Humor  and  the  Heroine.    Atlantic,  Vol.  XCV,  pp.  852-854. 

June,  1905. 
Mob  Spirit  in  Literature.  H.  D.  Sedgwick.  Atlantic,  Vol.  XCVI, 

pp.  9-15.   July,  1905. 
Purpose  Novel.    F.  T.  Cooper.    Bookman,  Vol.  XXII,  pp.  131- 

132.   October,  1905. 
1910-1914.    American  and  English  Novelists.  Afeto*,V0L  XCVIII,  pp.  422- 

423.    April  16,  1914. 
American  backgrounds  for  fiction : 

Georgia.  W.  N.  Harben.  Bookman,  Vol.  XXXVIII,  pp.  186- 

192.    October,  1913. 
North    Carolina.     T.    Dixon.     Bookman,   Vol.    XXXVIII, 

pp.  511-514.    January,  1914. 
Tennessee.     M.    T.    Daviess.     Bookman,   Vol.   XXXVIII, 

pp.  394-399.    December,  1913. 
North    Country    of    New    York.     I.    Bacheller.    Bookman, 

Vol.  XXXVIII,  pp.  624-628.    February,  1914. 
Pennsylvania     Dutch.      H.     R.     Martin.      Bookman,    Vol. 

XXXVIII,  pp.  244-247.    November,  1913. 
American   Novel   in   England.     G.  Atherton.    Bookman,  Vol. 

XXX,  pp.  633-640.    February,  1910. 

Recent  Reflections  of  a  Novel-Reader.    Atlantic.  Vol.  CXII, 
pp.  689-701.    November,  1913.    Vol.  CXIII,  pp.  490-500. 
April,  1914. 
Big    Movements    in    Fiction.     F.  T.   Cooper.     Bookman,  Vol. 

XXXIII,  pp.  80-82.    March,  1911. 
Characters  in  Recent  Fiction.     M.  Sherwood.    Atlantic,  Vol. 

CIX,  pp.  672-684.    May,  1912. 
Fault- Findings  of  a  Novel-Reader.   Atlantic,  Vol.  CV,  pp.  14- 

23.   January,  1910. 
Morality  in  Fiction  and  Some  Recent  Novels.    F.  T.  Cooper. 

Bookman,  Vol.  XXXVIII,  pp.  666-672.    February,  1914. 
Newest  Woman.    K.  F.  Gerould.   Atlantic,  Vol.  CIX,  pp.  606- 

6n.    May,  1912. 
Relation  of  the  Novel  to  the  Present  Social  Unrest.   Bookman, 

Vol.  XL,  pp.  276-303.    November,  1914. 
Art  in  Fiction.    E.  Phillpotts.    Bookman,  Vol.  XXXI,  pp.  17- 

18.    March,  1910. 
1915.    American  Style  in  American  Fiction.    F.  F.  Kelly.    Bookman, 

Vol.  XLI,  pp.  299-302.    May,  1915. 

Free  Fiction.    H.  S.  Canby.   Atlantic,  Vol.  CXVI,  pp.  60-68. 
June,  1915. 


436        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Advance  of  the  English  Novel.    W.  L.  Phelps.    Bookman,  Vol. 
XLII,  pp.  128-134,  381-388,  389-396.    October-December, 


Literary  Merchandise.    G.  Atherton.    New  Republic,  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  223-224.   July  3,  1915. 

1916.  New  York  of  the  Novelists  :  a  New  Pilgrimage.  A.  B.  Maurice, 

Bookman,  Vol.  XLII,  pp.  20-41,  165-192,  301-315,  436-452, 

569-589,  696-713.    September,  i9i5~February,  1916. 
Realism  and  Recent  American  Fiction.  H.  W.  Boynton.  Nation, 

Vol.  CII,  pp.  380-382.    April  6,  1916. 
Russian  View  of  American  Literature.    A.  Yarmolinsky.    Book 

man,  Vol.  XLIV,  pp.  44-48.    September,  1916. 
Recent  Reflections  of  a  Novel-Reader.   Atlantic,  Vol.  CXVII, 

pp.  632-642.    May,  1916. 

Sex  in  Fiction.   Nation,  Vol.  CI,  p.  716.    Dec.  16,  1915. 
Woman's  Mastery  of  the  Story.    G.  M.  Stratton.   Atlantic,  Vol. 

CXVII,  pp.  668-676.    May,  1916. 

1917.  Analysis  of  Fiction  in  the  United   States,  1911-1916.    F.  E. 

Woodward.    Bookman,  Vol.  XLV,  pp.  187-191.    April,  1917. 
Apotheosis  of  the  Worker  in  Modern  Fiction.    L.  M.  Field. 

Bookman,  Vol.  XLV,  pp.  89-92.   March,  1917. 
New  Orthodoxy  in  Fiction.    L.  M.  Field.    Bookman,  Vol.  XLV, 

pp.  175-178.    April,  1917. 
Outstanding  Novels   of  the   Year.     H.  W.  Boynton.    Nation, 

Vol.  CV,  pp.  599-601.    Nov.  29,  1917. 
Sixteen  Years  of  Fiction.  A.  B.  Maurice.  Bookman,  Vol.  XLIV, 

pp.  484-492.   January,  1917. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA 

From  1865  to  1900  the  American  drama  occupied  a  place 
of  so  little  artistic  importance  in  American  life  that  the  liter 
ary  historians  have  ignored  it.  There  is  no  word  about  it  in 
the  substantial  volumes  by  Richardson  and  Wendell,  none  in 
the  ordinary  run  of  textbooks,  not  a  mention  of  playwright, 
producer,  actor,  or  stage  even  in  the  four-hundred-odd  pages 
of  Pattee's  "  American  Literature  since  1870."  This  silence 
cannot,  of  course,  be  accounted  for  by  any  conspiracy  among 
the  historians ;  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  in  itself  the 
period  had  almost  no  dramatic  significance.  Quinn's  collec 
tion  of  twenty-five  "  Representative  American  Plays"  includes 
only  three  produced  between  these  dates.  The  basic  reason 
for  this  is  that  literary  conditions  did  not  induce  or  encourage 
play-writing  in  the  English-speaking  world  on  either  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  The  greatest  artistry  was  expressing  itself  in 
poetry,  and  in  America  no  major  poet  but  Longfellow 
attempted  even  "  closet  drama."  The  greatest  genius  in  story 
telling  was  let  loose  in  the  channel  of  fiction,  and  many  of 
the  successful  novels  were  given  a  second  incarnation  in  play 
form.  The  names  that  stand  out  in  stage  history  in  these 
years  are  the  names  of  controlling  managers,  like  Lester 
Wallack  and  Augustin  Daly,  or  of  players,  like  Charlotte 
Cushman,  Booth,  Barrett,  Jefferson,  and  Mansfield ;  and  the 
writers  of  plays  —  encouraged  by  stage  demands  rather  than 
by  literary  conditions  —  were  the  theatrical  successors  of  Dun- 
lap  and  Payne  (see  pp.  94-96)  —  men  like  Dion  Boucicault 
(i 82 2?- 1 890)  with  his  hundred  and  twenty-four  plays,  and 
Bronson  Howard  (1842-1908)  with  his  less  numerous  but  no 

437 


438        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

more  distinguished  array  of  stage  successes.  Side  by  side  with 
these,  and  quite  on  a  level  with  them,  rose  one  eminent  critic 
of  stagecraft  and  the  drama,  William  Winter  (1836-1917). 

With  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  however, 
a  new  generation  of  playwrights  began  to  win  recognition  — 
men  who  knew  literature  in  its  relation  to  the  other  arts  and 
who  wrote  plays  out  of  the  fullness  of  their  experience  and 
the  depth  of  their  convictions,  hoping  to  reach  the  public 
with  their  plays  but  not  concerned  chiefly  with  immediate 
"  box-office  "  returns.  The  movement  started  in  England  and 
on  the  Continent  and  —  as  we  can  now  see  —  in  America  as 
well,  but  the  traditional  American  neglect  of  American  litera 
ture  1  led  the  first  alert  critics  on  this  side  the  Atlantic  to  lay 
all  their  emphasis  on  writers  of  other  nationalities.  Thus  in 
1905  James  Huneker's  "  Iconoclasts "  discussed  Norwegian, 
French,  German,  Russian,  Italian,  Belgian,  and  English  dram 
atists.  E.  E.  Hale's  "  Dramatists  of  To-day"  of  the  same  year 
dealt  with  four  from  Huneker's  list,  substituted  one  French 
man,  and  added  two  Englishmen.  This  selection  was  quite 
defensible,  for  the  significant  contemporary  plays  which 
reached  the  stage  came  from  these  sources.  But  by  1910  the 
drift  of  things  was  suggested  by  the  contents  of  Walter  Prit- 
chard  Eaton's  "At  the  New  Theatre  and  Others."  In  this 
book,  of  twenty-three  plays  reviewed,  ten  were  by  American 
authors,  and  in  the  third  section,  composed  of  essays  related 
to  the  theater,  two  of  the  chief  units  were  discussions  of 
Clyde  Fitch  and  William  Winter.  And  the  dedication  of 
Eaton's  book  is  perhaps  the  single  item  of  greatest  historical 
significance,  for  it  gives  due  credit  to  Professor  George  P. 
Baker  of  Harvard  as  "  Founder  in  that  institution  of  a  pioneer 
course  for  the  study  of  dramatic  composition  "  and  as  "  inspir 
ing  leader  in  the  movement  for  a  better  appreciation  among 
educated  men  of  the  art  of  the  practical  theater." 

1  See  "American  Neglect  of  American  Literature"  by  Percy  H.  Boynton. 
Nation  (1916),  Vol.  C1I,  pp.  478-480. 


CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA  439 

The  field  into  which  we  are  led  is  so  broad  and  so  near 
that  in  a  brief  excursion  we  can  undertake  only  a  rough  clas 
sification  of  the  main  products  and  the  soil  in  which  they  are 
growing.  Such  a  classification  may  be  found  if  we  consider 
in  turn  first  the  better  play  written  for  a  better  theater,  which 
began  to  appear  about  1890,  then  the  various  new  types  of 
theater  which  grew  from  the  people's  interest  instead  of  from 
managerial  enterprise,  and,  finally,  the  literary  drama  in  poetry 
or  prose  which  profits  from  the  cooperation  of  actor  and 
stage-manager,  but  can  survive  in  print  unaided. 

"  The  movement  for  a  better  appreciation  among  educated 
men  of  the  art  of  the  practical  theatre,"  although  led  by  one 
college  professor,  was  itself  a  symptom  of  fresh  developments 
in  the  art  to  which  he  addressed  himself.  Omitting  —  but  not 
ignoring  —  the  rise  of  the  modern  school  of  European  drama 
tists  in  the  i89o's,  we  must  be  content  for  the  moment  to 
note  that  this  decade  brought  into  view  in  America  several 
men  who  were  more  than  show-makers,  even  though  they  were 
honestly  occupied  in  making  plays  .that  the  public  would  care 
to  spend  their  money  for.  The  significant  facts  about  these 
playwrights  are  that  they  gave  over  the  imitation  and  adapta 
tion  of  French  plays,  returned  to  American  dramatic  material, 
and  achieved  results  that  are  readable  as  well  as  actable.  Their 
immediate  forerunners  were  Steele  MacKaye  (1842-1894)  and 
James  A.  Herne  (1840-1901)  — the  former  devotedly  active  as 
a  teacher  of  budding  players  and  as  a  student  of  stage  tech 
nique,  the  latter  the  quiet  realist  of  "  Shore  Acres  "  and  other 
less-known  plays  of  simple  American  life.  Coming  into  their  first 
prominence  at  this  time  were  Augustus  Thomas  (1859- 
and  Clyde  Fitch  (1865-1909). 

They  both  appeared  as  theatrical  craftsmen  of  the  new 
generation,  and  like  their  prototypes  in  America,  Dunlap  and 
Payne  (see  pp.  96-98),  they  wrote  abundantly,  for  audiences 
rather  than  for  readers,  and  with  definite  actors  and  actresses 
in  mind  as  they  devised  situations  and  composed  lines.  Clyde 


440       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Fitch  in  twenty  years  wrote  and  produced  on  the  stage  thirty- 
three  plays  and  adapted  and  staged  twenty-three  more  —  an 
immense  output.  In  the  first  ten  years  the  most  important 
were  all  built  on  historical  themes  :  "  Beau  Brummel,"  "  Nathan 
Hale,"  and  "  Barbara  Frietchie."  It  is  easy  to  see  and  to  say 
that  in  writing  these  he  was  carrying  on  the  tradition  of 
Bronson  Howard  with  his  Civil  War  melodramas,  —  a  half 
truth,  however,  since  "  Beau  Brummel "  in  no  way  fits  the 
generalization,  and  other  plays  of  the  decade  were  on  contem 
porary  social  life.  In  the  second  ten  years  the  keynote  was 
struck  with  "The  Climbers,"  a  social  satire  on  a  shallow  city 
woman  and  her  two  daughters  whose  social  ambition  deadens 
them  to  any  fine  impulses  or  natural  emotions.  In  the  long 
roster  of  Fitch's  successes  a  few  constant  traits  are  obvious. 
He  built  his  stories  well,  set  them  carefully,  combined  the 
resources  of  the  playwright  who  knows  how  to  devise  a  "  situ 
ation  "  with  those  of  the  stage-manager  who  knows  how  to 
present  it,  and  cast  his  stories  into  simple,  rapid-fire,  clever 
dialogue.  He  took  advantage  of  up-to-date  material  for  the 
superficial  dress  of  his  plays,  introducing  the  background  of 
latest  allusion,  recently  coined  turns  of  phrase,  the  newest 
songs,  the  quips  and  turns  of  fashion.  And  he  went  beneath 
the  surface  to  the  undercurrents  of  human  motive  as  in  the 
wifely  constancy  in  "  The  Stubbornness  of  Geraldine,"  the 
jealousy  of  "  The  Girl  with  the  Green  Eyes,"  and  the  weak 
mendacity  of  Becky  in  "  The  Truth."  Fitch  was  never  pro 
found,  never  sought  to  be  ;  but  he  was  deservedly  popular, 
for  he  combined  no  little  skill  with  an  alert  sense  of  human 
values  in  everyday  life,  and  he  brought  an  artistic  conscience 
to  his  work.  Because  he  was  so  successful  his  influence  on 
other  dramatists  has  been  far-reaching ;  and  those  who  have 
been  neither  too  small  nor  too  great  to  learn  from  him  have 
learned  no  little  on  how  to  write  a  play. 

Mr.  Augustus  Thomas  has  lived  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
theater  from  boyhood.    He  began  writing  plays  at  fourteen, 


CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA  441 

was  directing  an  amateur  company  at  seventeen,  and  had  his 
first  New  York  success  in  his  twenty-eighth  year.  Since  1887 
he  has  been  a  professional  playwright ;  he  has  nearly  fifty 
productions  to  his  credit,  and  he  is  now  art  director  of  the 
Charles  Frohman  interests.  His  first  widely  known  works  were 
the  plays  of  states:  "Alabama"  (1891),  "In  Mizzoura " 
(1893),  and  "Arizona"  (1899)  —  plays  which  exerted  the  same 
general  appeal  as  "  Shenandoah "  and  "  Barbara  Frietchie." 
As  a  practical  man  of  the  theater  he  adapted  and  worked 
over  material,  dramatizing  novels  of  Mrs.  Burnett,  Hopkinson 
Smith,  and  Townsend.  His  attractive  "  Oliver  Goldsmith " 
was  built  not  only  around  the  character  of  that  whimsical  man 
of  letters  but  included  as  its  own  best  portion  an  act  out  of 
the  hero's  play  "The  Good-Natured  Man."  With  the  kind 
of  adaptability  which  belongs  equally  to  the  practical  man  of 
the  theater  and  to  the  enterprising  journalist,  he  undertook  in 
time  the  type  of  play  that  deals  with  questions  or  problems 
of  modern  interest.  The  same  current  of  speculation  that  led 
Mark  Twain  to  write  his  essay  on  "  Mental  Telepathy  "  and 
Hamlin  Garland  his  book  on  "  The  Shadow  World  "  accounts 
for  Thomas's  "The  Witching  Hour"  (1907),  which  inter 
weaves  the  strands  of  hereditary  influence  and  mental  sugges 
tion  ;  and  he  contributed  his  word  on  the  complex  problems 
of  the  modern  family  in  "As  a  Man  Thinks  "  (1911).  Up  to 
1917  he  had  written  and  adapted  forty-six  plays,  of  which 
eleven  had  been  published  after  their  production,  but  his 
work  of  real  distinction  belongs  to  the  period  opening  with 
"The  Witching  Hour."  In  his  later  plays  he  has  coupled 
his  highly  developed  ability  to  tell  a  story  with  a  vital  feeling 
for  the  positive  values  in  life.  In  "The  Harvest  Moon"  he 
makes  a  playwright-character  say,  "  I  would  willingly  give  the 
rest  of  my  life  to  go  back  and  take  from  my  plays  every  word 
that  has  made  men  less  happy,  less  hopeful,  less  kind."  And 
in  "  The  Witching  Hour "  he  declares  through  Jack  Brook- 
field  the  text  of  that  and  succeeding  plays,  "  You  're  a  child 


442        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

of  the  everlasting  God  and  nothing  on  the  earth  or  under  it 
can  harm  you  in  the  slightest  degree'' — a  text  which,  said  of 
the  soul,  is  immortally  true. 

In  a  short  chapter  it  is  impossible  to  discuss  in  detail  any 
other  of  the  play-writers  who  have  done  with  less  applause 
but  with  no  less  devotion  the  kind  of  writing  represented  by 
the  best  of  Fitch  and  Thomas ;  and  it  would  be  invidious  to 
attempt  a  mere  list  of  the  others,  as  if  a  mention  of  their 
names  would  be  a  sop  to  their  pride.  The  case  must  rest 
here  with  the  statement  that  these  two  men  were  the  leaders 
of  an  increasing  group  and  that  the  desire  to  compose  more 
skillful  and  more  worthy  plays  was  paralleled  by  a  revival  of 
respect  for  the  modern  drama  and  the  modern  stage.  This 
leads  to  the  middle  section  of  our  survey,  and  turns  from  the 
drama  itself  to  the  fifteen-year  struggle  for  possession  of  the 
American  stage  —  the  actual  "boards"  on  which  the  plays 
could  be  presented.  It  is  as  dramatic  as  any  play,  this  story 
of  the  conflict  between  intelligent  idealism,  —  whether  in  play 
wright,  actor  or  theatergoer,  and  commercial  greed,  —  and  it  is 
far  from  concluded,  though  a  happy  denouement  seems  to  be 
in  sight. 

The  first  step  has  already  been  mentioned :  the  develop 
ment  of  a  student  attitude  toward  the  contemporary  play  and 
its  production.  Professor  Baker  at  Harvard  and  Professor 
Matthews  at  Columbia  were  looked  at  by  some  with  wonder 
and  by  others  with  amused  doubt  when  they  began  as  teachers 
to  divide  their  attention  between  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
stage.  Yet  as  the  study  progressed  their  students  became  not 
only  intelligent  theatergoers  but  constructive  contributors,  as 
critics  and  creators,  to  the  literature  of  the  stage ;  and  then 
in  the  natural  order  of  events  the  whole  student  body  came  to 
realize  that  the  older  drama  should  be  reduced  to  its  proper 
place  and  restored  to  it ;  that  it  was  an  interesting  chapter  in 
literary  and  social  history  because  it  was  not  a  closed  chapter, 
but  a  preliminary  to  the  events  of  the  present.  At  the  same 


CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA  443 

time  modest  but  important  beginnings  were  being  made  in 
the  education  of  the  actor,  and  men  like  Franklin  Sargent, 
President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Dramatic  Arts,  opened 
the  way  to  a  professional  training  for  actors  that  would  com 
pare  with  the  training  demanded  of  and  by  the  singer,  painter, 
or  sculptor.  These  beginnings  were  full  of  promise,  but  the 
promise  was  to  be  long  held  in  abeyance  by  the  machinations 
of  the  theatrical  syndicate. 

This  commercial  trust  is  the  heavy  villain  of  the  play,  the 
charge  against  it  being  that  whereas  the  business  management 
of  the  theater  was  called  into  being  in  order  to  serve  the 
drama,  it  managed  so  effectively  that  by  the  winter  of  1895- 
1896  it  was  strong  enough  to  demand  that  henceforth  the 
drama  support  the  business  management.  The  six  men  who 
were  able  to  assume  control  handled  their  business  according  to 
the  approved  methods  of  the  trust,  trying  to  get  salable  goods 
and  to  multiply  the  output  of  what  the  public  wanted,  trying 
to  control  all  the  salesmen  (players)  and  all  the  distributing 
points  (playhouses)  and  to  put  out  of  business  any  player  or 
local  manager  who  would  not  market  their  choice  of  goods  at 
their  schedule  of  dates  and  prices.  For  nearly  fifteen  years 
the  syndicate  were  as  effective  in  their  field  as  the  Standard 
Oil  or  United  Shoe  Machinery  Companies  were  in  theirs. 
One  actress,  Mrs.  Fiske,  endured  every  sort  of  discomfort 
and,  no  doubt,  heavy  losses  for  the  privilege  of  playing  what, 
when,  and  where  she  pleased ;  but  for  a  while  she  had  her 
own  way  only  to  the  extent  of  appearing  in  theaters  so  cheap 
that  they  were  beneath  the  contempt  of  the  monopoly.  In  the 
meanwhile,  however,  discontent  spread,  a  rival  firm  of  mana 
gers  erected  rival  theaters,  and,  conducting  their  business  on 
principles  of  more  enlightened  selfishness,  in  1910  enlisted 
twelve  hundred  of  the  smaller  revolting  theaters  with  them 
and  forced  the  syndicate  to  share  the  field.  Since  that  time 
the  theaters  of  America  have  been  administered  as  well,  per 
haps,  as  the  system  will  allow ;  but  it  is  a  mistaken  system 


444        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

that  puts  a  fine  art  in  the  market  place  and  demands  that  it 
maintain  itself  because  "  business  is  business." 

The  first  really  great  attempt  to  ask  anything  less  of  the 
modern  drama  in  America,  to  demand  no  more  of  the  play 
than  is  demanded  of  the  opera  or  the  symphony,  was  the 
founding  of  the  celebrated  and  short-lived  New  Theater  in 
New  York  (1909-191 1).  That  it  failed  within  two  years  is  not 
half  so  important  as  that  it  was  founded,  that  others  on  smaller 
scales  have  since  been  founded  and  have  failed,  that  municipal 
theaters  have  sprung  up  here  and  there  and  are  being  sup 
ported  according  to  various  plans,  that  scores  upon  scores  of 
little  theaters,  neighborhood  playhouses,  and  people's  country 
theaters  have  been  founded,  that  producers  like  Winthrop  Ames 
and  Stuart  Walker  are  established  in  public  favor,  that  the 
Drama  League  of  America  is  a  genuine  national  organization, 
and  that  the  printing  of  plays  for  a  reading  public  is  many  fold 
its  proportions  of  twenty  years  ago.  The  Napoleonic  theatrical 
managers  are  still  in  the  saddle  in  America,  and  the  com 
mercial  stage  of  the  country  is  still  managed  from  Broadway, 
but  the  uncommercial  stage  is  coming  to  be  more  considerable 
every  season.  The  leaven  of  popular  intelligence  is  at  work. 

With  developments  of  this  sort  taking  place  and  gaining  in 
momentum,  there  is  a  growing  attention  to  the  printed  literary 
drama  and  an  encouraging  prospect  for  it  in  the  theater.  As 
far  back  as  1891,  when  Clyde  Fitch  and  Augustus  Thomas 
were  coming  into  their  reputations,  Richard  Hovey  (1864- 
1900)  published  "The  Quest  of  Merlin,"  the  first  unit  in  his 
"  Launcelot  and  Guenevere,"  which  he  described  as  a  poem  in 
dramas.  It  was  a  splendidly  conceived  treatment  of  the  con 
flict  between  the  claims  of  individual  love  and  the  intruding 
demands  of  the  outer  world.  In  resorting  to  the  Arthurian 
legends  Hovey  "was  not  primarily  interested  in  them,"  accord 
ing  to  his  friend  and  expounder,  Bliss  Carman,  "  for  their 
historic  and  picturesque  value  as  poetic  material,  great  as  that 
value  undoubtedly  is  ...  the  problem  he  felt  called  upon  to 


CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA  445 

deal  with  is  a  perennial  one,  old  as  the  world,  yet  intensely 
modern,  and  it  appealed  to  him  as  a  modern  man.  .  .  .  The 
Arthurian  cycle  provided  Tennyson  with  the  groundwork  of  a 
national  epic ;  ...  to  Richard  Hovey  it  afforded  a  modern 
instance  stripped  of  modern  dress."  It  was  to  have  been  com 
pleted  in  three  parts,  each  containing  a  masque,  a  tragedy,  and 
a  romantic  drama  ;  but  only  the  first  was  completed  —  "  The 
Quest  of  Merlin  "  (1891),  "  The  Marriage  of  Guenevere"  (1891), 
and  "The  Birth  of  Galahad"  (1898).  Shortly  after  finishing 
"  Taliesin,"  the  masque  for  the  second  part,  Hovey  died. 

Another  and  greater  cycle  of  poetic  dramas  which  was 
interrupted  by  a  premature  death  was  a  trilogy  on  the 
Promethean  theme  by  William  Vaughn  Moody  (1869-1910). 
The  theme  is  the  unity  of  God  and  man  and  their  consequent 
mutual  dependency.  "The  Fire-Bringer "  (1904)  presents 
man's  victory  at  the  supreme  cost  of  disunion  from  God 
through  the  defiant  theft  of  fire  from  heaven.  "  The  Masque 
of  Judgment"  (1900)  is  a  no  less  fearful  triumph  of  the 
Creator  in  dooming  part  of  himself  as  he  overwhelms  man 
kind.  The  final  part,  "The  Death  of  Eve,"  was  to  have 
achieved  the  final  reconciliation,  but  it  was  left  a  fragment  at 
the  poet's  death  in  1910  and  so  stands  in  the  posthumous 
edition  of  his  works.  It  is  significant  in  the  literary  history 
of  the  day  that  the  culminating  product  of  both  these  young 
poets  was  an  uncompleted  poetic  play-cycle.  Moody's  connec 
tion  with  the  stage,  however,  was  closer  than  Hovey 's,  for  he 
wrote  two  prose  plays  which  were  successfully  produced — "The 
Great  Divide"  (1907)  and  "The  Faith  Healer"  (1909).  In 
"The  Great  Divide,"  produced  first  under  the  title  of  "The 
Sabine  Woman,"  Moody  wrote  a  dramatic  story  on  a  fundamen 
tal,  and  hence  a  modern,  aspect  of  life.  The  problem  of  the 
play  is  stated  flippantly  yet  truly  by  the  heroine's  sister-in-law : 

Here  on  the  one  hand  is  the  primitive,  the  barbaric  woman,  falling 
in  love  with  a  romantic  stranger,  who,  like  some  old  Viking  on  a  harry, 
cuts  her  with  his  two-handed  sword  from  the  circle  of  her  kinsmen, 


446        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

and  bears  her  away  on  his  dragon  ship  toward  the  midnight  sun. 
Here  on  the  other  hand  is  the  derived,  the  civilized  woman,  with  a 
civilized  nervous  system,  observing  that  the  creature  eats  bacon  with 
his  bowie  knife,  knows  not  the  manicure,  has  the  conversation  of  a  pre 
occupied  walrus,  the  instincts  of  a  jealous  caribou,  and  the  endearments 
of  a  dancing  crab  in  the  mating  season. . . .  Ruth  is  one  of  those  peo 
ple  who  can't  live  in  a  state  of  divided  feeling.  She  sits  staring  at  this 
cleavage  in  her  life.  ...  All  I  mean  is  that  when  she  married  her  man 
she  married  him  for  keeps.  And  he  did  the  same  by  her. 

The  play  was  produced  in  Chicago,  put  on  for  a  long  run 
in  New  York  and  on  tour,  and  presented  in  London,  and  in 
1917  was  revived  for  a  successful  run  in  New  York  again. 
"  The  Faith  Healer,"  the  idea  for  which  occurred  to  Moody 
in  1898,  was  completed  ten  years  later,  after  the  success  of  the 
first  play.  The  theme  is  not  so  close  to  common  experience 
as  that  of  "  The  Great  Divide,"  and  perhaps  because  of  this  as 
well  as  the  subtler  treatment  it  did  not  draw  such  audiences. 
Both  plays  end  on  a  high  spiritual  level,  but  the  second  failed 
to  register  in  the  "  box  office  "  because  the  relief  scenes  are 
grim  rather  than  amusing  and  because  there  is  no  fleshly 
element  in  the  love  of  the  hero  and  the  heroine. 

Percy  MacKaye  (1875-  )  embodies  the  meeting  of  the 
older  traditions  — his  father  was  Steele  MacKaye  (see  p.  439)  — 
and  the  most  recent  development  in  American  drama,  the  rise 
of  pageantry  and  the  civic  festival.  As  a  professional  dramatist 
he  has  been  prolific  to  the  extent  of  some  twenty-five  plays, 
pageants,  and  operas.  His  acted  plays  have  varied  in  range 
and  subject  from  contemporary  social  satire  to  an  interesting 
succession  of  echoes  from  the  literary  past  —  plays  like  "The 
Canterbury  Pilgrims"  (1903),  "Jeanne  D'Arc "  (1906),  and 
"  Sappho  and  Phaon  "  (1907),  which  he  seems  to  have  under 
taken,  in  contrast  to  Hovey,  for  their  picturesque  and  poetic 
value  alone.  His  special  contribution,  however,  has  been  to  the 
movement  for  an  uncommercialized  civic  and  national  theater 
through  the  preparation  of  a  number  of  community  celebrations. 


CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA  447 

These  include  the  Saint  Gaudens  Pageant  at  Cornish,  New 
Hampshire  (1905),  the  Gloucester  Pageant  (1903),  "  Sanctuary, 
a  Bird  Masque"  (1913),  "St.  Louis,  a  Civic  Masque"  (1914),  and 
"Caliban,  a  Community  Masque"  (New  York,  1916,  and  Boston, 
1917).  The  fusing  interest  in  a  common  artistic  undertaking 
has  brought  together  whole  cities  in  the  finest  kind  of  demo 
cratic  enthusiasm,  and  the  effects  have  not  been  merely  tempo 
rary,  for  in  a  community  such  as  St.  Louis  the  permanent 
benefits  are  still  evident  in  the  community  chorus  and  in  the 
beautiful  civic  theater  which  is  the  annual  scene  of  memorable 
productions  witnessed  by  scores  of  thousands  of  spectators. 

Charles  Rann  Kennedy  (1871-  ),  the  last  of  the  drama 
tists  to  be  considered  here,  is  a  man  in  whom  a  technical 
mastery  of  the  play  is  combined  with  a  high  degree  of  poetic 
fervor.  He  was  born  in  Derby,  England,  coming  from  a  family 
which  has  been  famed  for  classical  scholarship.1  His  own 
education  was  largely  pursued  outside  of  the  schools,  and  he 
is  not  a  university  man,  but  no  element  is  more  important  in 
his  preparation  for  play-writing  than  his  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  classical  and,  especially,  the  Greek  drama.  Between  the 
ages  of  thirteen  and  sixteen  he  was  office  boy,  clerk,  and 
telegraph  operator,  but  always  imaginatively  interested  in  the 
technical  aspects  of  his  jobs.  During  his  early  twenties  he 
was  a  lecturer  and  writer,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  literary  as  well 
as  personal  moment  that  in  1898  he  married  Edith  Wynne 
Matthison,  widely  known  for  her  work  with  Irving,  with  Tree, 
and  at  the  New  Theater  and  as  the  creator  of  leading  parts 
in  her  husband's  plays.  Since  the  beginning  of  his  author 
ship  Mr.  Kennedy  has  lived  in  the  United  States,  of  which 
he  is  now  a  citizen. 

His  dramatic  work  has  fallen  into  two  groups :  "  The 
Terrible  Meek  "  and  "  The  Necessary  Evil  "  —  Short  Plays  for 

1  In  the  "  Sketch  Book "  Washington  Irving  concludes  "  Rural  Life  in 
England  "  with  a  poem  by  the  Reverend  Rann  Kennedy,  A.M.,  a  great-uncle 
of  the  dramatist. 


448        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Small  Casts  —  and  his  Seven  Plays  for  Seven  Players.  As 
in  the  cases  of  Moody  and  Hovey  already  cited,  his  plays  are 
part  of  an  inclusive  program  —  a  program  which  is  the  more 
remarkable  on  account  of  the  fact  that  it  took  definite  shape 
in  the  course  of  a  single  discussion  with  a  group  of  literary 
friends  —  G.  B.  Shaw,  Gilbert  Chesterton,  and  Hilaire  Belloc 
among  them  —  before  he  came  to  this  country.  As  a  result  of 
this  discussion  he  undertook  to  write  seven  plays  :  each  for  five 
men  and  two  women,  each  holding  the  mien  between  a  height 
ened  and  decorative  romance  and  an  objective  and  unimagina 
tive  realism,  each  dealing  with  a  separate  great  central  theme 
in  life,  each  attempting  a  new  or  revived  technical  difficulty 
in  play  construction,  and  each  subjected  to  the  most  rigid  con 
formity  to  the  dramatic  unities,  being  written  with  no  break  in 
time  sequence  or  shift  of  scene. 

The  series  includes  (i)  "The  Winterf  east "  (1906),  of  which 
the  central  theme  is  "The  Lie  and  Hate  in  Life  which  destroy" ; 
(2)  "  The  Servant  in  the  House  "  (1907),  on  "  The  Truth  and 
Love  in  Life  which  preserve " ;  (3)  "  The  Idol-Breaker " 
(1913),  on  "Freedom";  (4)  "The  Rib  of  the  Man"  (1916), 
on  "  The  New  Woman  already  in  the  World,  and  the  New 
Warrior  coming  as  fast  as  the  European  War  will  let  him  "  ; 
(5)  "  The  Army  with  Banners  "  (1917),  on  "  The  Coming  of  the 
Lord  in  Power  and  Glory  and  the  New  World  now  culmi 
nating."  Of  these  five,  all  but  the  fourth  have  been  produced, 
"  The  Rib  of  the  Man "  having  been  withheld  temporarily 
because  of  its  nonmilitant  theme  and  the  resultant  managerial 
timidity ;  and  all  but  the  fifth  have  been  published.  The  series 
will  be  completed  with  "The  Fool  from  the  Hills,"  the  cen 
tral  theme  being  "  The  Bread  of  Life,  or  The  Food  Problem  "  ; 
and  the  last  will  be  "The  Isle  of  the  Blest,"  on  "The  Con 
summation  of  Life  in  what  Men  call  Death." 

Plays  written  in  such  a  progression  are  clearly  approached 
in  a  spirit  of  high  seriousness  and  with  little  regard  or  any 
expectation  of  immediate  applause.  But  they  are  also  written 


CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA  449 

in  a  spirit  of  high  defiance,  with  deliberate  consciousness  of  the 
methods  employed,  and  an  inspired  certainty  that  they  will  be 
heard  at  last.  Adam  —  the  Idol-Breaker  —  has  thrown  down 
the  definite  challenge : 

"  I  've  told  these  people  things  before.  Many  times.  Why, 
it  was  me,  six  years  ago,  as  called  them  here,  and  told  them  of 
the  brotherhood  of  man."  [Cf.  "The  Servant  in  the  House."] 

"  Well,  didn't  they  listen  to  you,  that  time  ?  "  says  Naomi. 

"Ay,  at  first,"  replies  Adam,  "while  I  was  new  to  them. 
Then  they  turned  again  to  idols ;  and  twisted  my  plain  mean 
ing  into  tracts  for  Sunday  School.  I  up  and  spoke  again,  and 
told  them  of  the  lies  and  hate  they  lived  by.  [Cf.  "The  Winter- 
feast."]  Shewed  them  the  death  and  bitterness  of  it!  —  Well, 
they  soon  let  me  know  about  that.  I  preached  their  own  God's 
gospel  to  them,  and  brought  Christ's  Murder  to  their  blood 
stained  doors.  [Cf.  "The  Terrible  Meek."]  They  spat  upon 
me.  I  told  them  of  the  lusts  as  fed  their  brothels;  [cf.  "The 
Necessary  Evil "]  and  every  red-eyed  wolf  among  them  said 
I  lied.  Even  when  they  didn't  speak,  I  knew  the  meaning 
of  their  leering  silence.  This  time,  it 's  freedom  —  the  thing 
they  're  always  bragging  of ;  and  as  long  as  I  am  in  the  world, 
they  '11  have  it  dinned  into  their  heads,  as  freedom  is  n't  all  a 
matter  of  flags  and  soldiers'  pop-guns.  It 's  something  they  've 
got  to  sweat  for.  Don't  you  think  they  're  going  to  get  off 
easy,  once  I  see  them  stuck  in  front  of  me ! 

"  Oh,  I  make  them  laugh,  all  right.  They  want  to  be 
amused.  Lot  of  jaded  johnnies !  Every  one  of  them  thinking 
I  mean  his  next-door  neighbor ;  and  I  mean  just  him  !  " 

In  "The  Winterfeast"  there  is  no  laughter;  at  most  only 
a  smile  in  the  first  meeting  of  the  two  young  lovers.  It  is  a 
relentless  tale  of  Nemesis  following  on  the  path  of  hatred,  set 
in  Iceland  of  the  eleventh  century,  told  in  the  tone  and  at 
times  plainly  in  the  manner  of  Sophocles.  All  the  others  of 
the  Seven  Plays,  however,  are  put  in  the  present  day,  with 
characters  who  are  modern  examples  of  perennial  types,  with 


450       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

abundant  "  relief  scenes  "  in  confirmation  of  Adam's  "  I  make 
them  laugh,"  and  with  an  undertone  of  irony,  —  whimsical, 
derisive,  grave,  or  bitter,  as  the  occasions  demand.  Of  these 
11  The  Servant  in  the  House  "  has  been  the  preeminent  popu 
lar  success  because  of  its  appeal  to  the  conventionally  religious, 
who  accepted  its  pervasive  beneficence  and  ignored  its  strictures 
on  the  church. 

None  of  Mr.  Kennedy's  plays  is  more  completely  repre 
sentative  of  his  spirit,  his  purpose,  and  his  method  than  "  The 
Rib  of  the  Man."  It  is  located  on  an  island  in  the  ^Egean, 
amid  "  the  never-ending  loveliness  of  all  good  Greek  things." 
It  is  dedicated  to  the  New  Woman,  to  whom  a  recently 
unearthed  altar  inscribed  "  To  the  Mother  of  the  Gods  "  has 
given  the  authority  of  the  ages.  The  persons  of  the  play  are 
morality  types,  although  intensely  human.  They  are  "  David 
Fleming,  an  image  of  God,  the  Man ;  Rosie  Fleming,  an  help 
meet  for  him,  the  Rib ;  Archie  Legge,  a  gentleman,  a  Beast 
of  the  Earth ;  Basil  Martin,  an  aviator,  a  Fowl  of  the  Air ; 
Peter  Prout,  a  scientist,  the  Subtle  One ;  Ion,  the  gardener, 
the  Voice  Warning  ;  and  Diana  Brand,  a  spare  rib,  the  Flaming 
Sword."  And  finally,  the  play  is  written  "  with  an  inner  and 
an  outer  meaning,  symbolical,  instinct  with  paradox  and  irony, 
leading  deeply  unto  truth." 

Only  one  of  Mr.  Kennedy's  plays  has  achieved  a  popular 
triumph,  and  the  success  of  that  one  was  due  to  its  limited 
and  somewhat  perverted  interpretation.  They  all,  however, 
repay  study  and  disclose  new  depths  with  each  re-reading. 
Serious  art  rarely  makes  quick  conquests.  Audiences  of  spirit 
and  intellect  will  develop  for  them  as  they  have  for  the  plays 
of  Ibsen  and  Maeterlinck.  The  new  audience,  the  new  theater, 
and  the  new  drama  —  old  as  the  oldest  literature  —  in  due  time 
will  come  to  their  own  again. 


CONTEMPORARY  DRAMA  451 

BOOK  LIST 
Plays  by  Individual  Men 

CLYDE  FITCH.  The  Plays  of  Clyde  Fitch,  Memorial  Edition,  edited  by 
M.  J.  Moses  and  Virginia  Gerson,  1915. 

RICHARD  HOVEY.    Plays,  uniform  edition,  1907-1908. 

CHARLES  RANN  KENNEDY.  The  plays  have  been  published  in  succession 
by  Harper's. 

PERCY  MACKA  YE.    Poems  and  Plays.    1916.    2  vols. 

WILLIAM  VAUGHN  MOODY.    Poems  and  Plays.    1912.    2  vols. 

AUGUSTUS  THOMAS.  Arizona,  Alabama.  Dramatic  Publishing  Co.  As 
a  Man  Thinks.  Duffield.  The  Witching  Hour,  Oliver  Goldsmith, 
The  Harvest  Moon,  In  Mizzoura,  Mrs.  Leffingwell's  Boots,  The  Other 
Girl,  The  Capitol,  and  The  Earl  of  Pawtucket.  Samuel  French. 

Collections 

DICKINSON,  THOMAS  H.    Chief  Contemporary  Dramatists.    Boston, 

1915.    (Contains  four  American  plays.) 
MOSES,  MONTROSE  J.    Representative  Plays  by  American  Dramatists. 

3  vols.   Vol.  I,  1918  (contains  ten  plays,  1759-1824);  Vols.  II  and 

III  announced. 
PIERCE,  JOHN  ALEXANDER.    The  Masterpieces  of  Modern  Drama. 

Abridged    in    Narrative    with    Dialogue    of    the    Great    Scenes. 

Preface  with  a  critical  essay  by  Brander  Matthews.   (Vol.  II  con 

tains  selections  from  twelve  American  plays.) 
QUINN,  A.  H.    Representative  American  Plays.    1917.   Twenty-five 

plays,  1769-1911. 

Criticism 

ANDREWS,  CHARLTON.   The  Drama  To-day.    1913. 
BURTON,  RICHARD.    The  New  American  Drama.    1913. 
CHENEY,  SHELDON.    The  New  Movement  in  the  Theatre.    1914. 
CLARK,  BARRETT  H.   The  British  and  American  Drama  of  To-day. 


DICKINSON,  THOMAS  H.    The  Case  of  American  Drama.    1915. 
EATON,  W.  P.   The  American  Stage  of  To-day.    1908. 
EATON,  W.  P.    At  the  New  Theatre  and  Others.    1910. 
HAPGOOD,  NORMAN.    The  Stage  in  America,  1897-1900.    1901. 
HENDERSON,  ARCHIBALD.    The  Changing  Drama.    1914. 
MACKAYE,  PERCY.    The  Playhouse  and  the  Play.    1909. 
MACKAYE,  PERCY.    The  Civic  Theatre.    1912. 
MATTHEWS,  BRANDER.    Inquiries  and  Opinions.    1907. 
MATTHEWS,  BRANDER.    The   Historical   Novel'  and   Other  Essays. 

1901. 

MOSES,  M.  J.   The  American  Dramatist.    1911. 
RUHL,  ARTHUR.    Second  Nights.    1914. 


452        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Magazine  Articles 

The  magazine  articles  on  the  drama  cited  in  the  "  Reader's  Guide  " 
are  extremely  numerous.  From  among  those  since  1 900  the  following  are 
of  special  interest : 

1900-1904.    Development    of    the    drama.     B.    Matthews.    Nation,    VoL 

LXXVII,  pp.  346-347.    Oct.  29,  1903. 
Poetry  and  the  stage.    H.  W.  Boynton.   Atlantic,  Vol.  XCII, 

pp.  120-126.   July,  1903. 
Theater  and  the  critics.  Nation,  Vol.  LXXIII,  p.  106.   August  8. 

Outlook,  Vol.  LXIX,  pp.  528-529.   Nov.  2,  1901. 
Future  of  drama.    B.  Matthews.    Bookman,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  31- 

36.    March,  1903. 
Makers  of  the  drama  of  to-day.  B.  Matthews.   Atlantic,  Vol. 

XCI,  pp.  504-512.   April,  1903. 
1905-1909.    Literature  and  the  modern  drama.    H.  A.  Jones.    Atlantic,  Vol. 

XCVIII,  pp.  796-807.    December,  1906. 
Playwright  and  the  playgoers.    B.  Matthews.  Atlantic,  Vol.  CII, 

pp.  421-426.    September,  1908. 
Elevation    of   the  stage.    Atlantic,   Vol.    XCIX,   pp.   721-723. 

May,  1907. 
New  theatre.    M.  Merington.    Bookman,  Vol.  XXVII,  pp.  561- 

566.    August,  1908. 
Theatrical  conditions.    Nation,   Vol.   LXXXIV,  pp.   182-183. 

Feb.  21,  1907. 

1910-1914.    What  is  wrong  with  the  American  drama?    C.  Hamilton.    Book 
man,  Vol.  XXXIX,  pp.  314-319.    May,  1914. 
Exotic  plays.    Nation,  Vol.  XCIV,  pp.  142-143.    Feb.  8,  1912. 

1915.  Decay  of  respectability.    F.  Hackett.   New  Republic,  Vol.  II, 

p.  51.    Feb.  13,  1915. 

Work  of  the  Drama  League  of  America.    R.  Burton.    Nation, 
Vol.  XCIX,  pp.  668-669.    Dec.  3,  1914. 

1916.  Realism  of  the  American  stage.    H.  de  W.  Fuller.   Nation,  Vol. 

CII,  pp.  307-310.    March  16,  1916. 
The  Public  and  the  theater.  C.  Hamilton.  Bookman,  Vol.  XLIV, 

pp.  252-257.    November,  1916. 
The  Public  and  the  theater.    Reply  to  Mr.  Hamilton.    G.  R. 

Robinson.    Bookman,  Vol.  XLIV,  p.  401.    December,  1916. 

1917.  Belasco  and  the  independent  theater.    C.  Hamilton.   Bookman, 

Vol.  XLV,  pp.  8-12.    March,  1917. 

East  and  West  on  the  stage.  Nation,  Vol.  CIV,  p.  321.  March  15, 
1917. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE  LATER  POETRY 

All  of  the  calculated  activities  for  the  promotion  of  the  stage 
during  the  last  few  years  in  America  have  as  yet  been  limited 
and  indirect  in  their  results.  Among  them  it  is  very  possible 
that  there  was  a  blazing  of  the  way  for  another  development  of 
great  importance  which  has  taken  place  without  any  leagues  or 
schools  or  organized  propaganda.  This  has  been  the  restora-  \ 
tion  of  poetry  as  a  living  language.  Not  only  have  authors' 
readings  taken  the  place  of  dramatic  interpretations  in  the 
lecture  market  but  the  audiences  who  flock  to  hear  Tagore  and 
Noyes  and  Masefield  and  Gibson  and  Bynner  and  Lindsay 
and  Frost  go  to  listen  to  poems  with  which  they  are  already 
familiar  and  to  get  that  sense  of  personal  aquaintance  with 
poets  which  ten  years  ago  they  coveted  with  playwrights  and, 
further  back,  with  novelists.  The  dominant  fact  about  the  con-  \ 
temporary  reading  public  is  its  reawakened  zest  for  poetry. 

In  1890  the  English  poetry-reading  world  was  chiefly  con 
scious  of  the  passing  of  its  leading  singers  for  the  last  half 
century.  It  was  a  period  when  they  were  recalling  Emerson's 
"  Terminus  "  and  Longfellow's  "  Ultima  Thule,"  Whitman's 
"  November  Boughs  "  and  Whittier's  "  A  Lifetime,"  Tenny 
son's  "Crossing  the  Bar"  and  Browning's  "Asolando."  There 
was  no  group  in  the  prime  of  life  who  were  adequate  successors 
to  this  greater  choir.  Stedman,  Aldrich,  and  Stoddard  had 
courted  the  muse  as  a  kind  of  alien  divinity  and  enjoyed  ex 
cursions  into  the  distant  land  of  her  dwelling-place.  But  their 
poetry  was  a  poetry  of  accomplishment ;  an  embellishment  of 
life,  and  not  an  integral  part  of  it  (see  pp.  324-326).  It  was  a 
period  when  people  were  tempted  with  some  reason  to  dwell  on 

453 


454       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

the  "good  old  days,"  and  for  a  while  it  seemed  as  though  it 
would  be  long  before  the  world  would  see  their  like  again. 

The  spirit  of  the  times  seemed  to  be  expressed  by  a  group 
of  younger  artists  who  were  in  conscious  revolt  against  Victorian 
literature  and  rather  noisily  assertive  on  their  favorite  theme  of 
art  for  art's  sake.  They  were  occupied  in  composing  intricate 
and  ingenious  poems.  They  were  engrossed  like  Masters's 
"  Petit,  the  Poet"  in  inditing 

Triolets,  villanelles,  rondels,  rondeaus, 

Seeds  in  a  dry  pod,  tick,  tick,  tick, 

Tick,  tick,  tick,  what  little  iambics, 

While  Homer  and  Whitman  roared  in  the  pines ! 

Some  of  them  did  pastels  in  prose,  and  many  edited  transitory 
little  periodicals  like  The  Yellow  Book,  The  Chap  Book,  The 
Lark,  and  Truth  in  Boston.  Fourteen  of  these  came  into 
existence  in  the  United  States  in  the  first  two  months  of  1897, 
and  almost  none  of  them  survived  till  the  Fourth  of  July  of  that 
year.  Probably  the  only  lines  in  any  of  them  recalled  by  the 
readers  of  to-day  are  Gelett  Burgess's  quatrain  on  the  purple 
cow.  The  burden  of  these  young  poets  was  many  words  fairly 
spoken  of  "  organic  growth,"  "  development,"  "  progress,"  "  lib 
eralism,"  "freedom  of  speech,"  and  "independent  thought"; 
and  the  chief  product  of  their  thinking  was  a  frank  and  free 
Bohemianism,  an  honest  unconventionality  much  more  real  than 
the  diluted  thing  about  which  Stedman  and  Aldrich  had  rimed 
thirty  years  before. 

The  most  vigorous  and  enduring  of  the  new  group  was 
Richard  Hovey  (1864-1900).  He  was  Western-born,  schooled 
at  Washington,  and  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  in  1885.  His 
next  years  included  study  in  the  General  Theological  Seminary 
in  New  York,  an  assistantship  in  a  New  York  ritualistic  church, 
excursions  into  journalism  and  acting,  and  then,  after  some 
years  as  poet  and  dramatist,  a  professorship  of  English  litera 
ture  in  Barnard  College,  Columbia  University.  Hovey  grew 


THE  LATER  POETRY  455 

perceptibly  during  his  eager  enjoyment  of  these  various  pur 
suits.  For  a  while  he  seemed  content  to  sing  the  praises  of 
convivial  comradeship : 

For  we  know  the  world  is  glorious 

And  the  goal  a  golden  thing, 
And  that  God  is  not  censorious 

When  his  children  have  their  fling ; 

but  he  passed  before  long  to  the  stage  in  which  the  good  fellow 
ship  of  youth  was  a  symbol  of  something  far  larger  than  itself 
—  nothing  less  than  the  promise  of  humankind.  The  ode  deliv 
ered  before  his  fraternity  convention  in  1896  quite  transcends 
the  sort  of  effusion  usually  evoked  by  such  occasions.  The 
spring  in  the  air,  in  the  world,  and  in  the  heart  of  youth  culmi 
nate  in  the  oft-sung  "  Stein  Song  "  ;  and  after  it  the  poem  goes 
on  to  "  The  first  low  stirring  of  that  greater  spring," 

Of  something  potent  burning  through  the  earth, 
Of  something  vital  in  the  procreant  air. 

This  potent  something  is  the  "  unceasing  purpose  "  of  Tenny 
son,  but  with  a  difference,  for  in  Hovey's  mind  it  is  not 
the  purpose  of  a  detached  God  who  imposes  his  will  benevo 
lently  on  mankind  from  without,  but  the  creative  impulse  which 
is  inherent  in  life  itself,  the  evidence  of  the  divine  spirit  in  the 
heart  of  man.  Comradeship,  then,  became  to  Hovey  a  symbol 
of  altruism,  and  he  looked  beyond  this  springtide  of  the  year 
and  of  the  youthful  collegians  to  the  time  when  science,  art, 
and  religion  should  emancipate  men  in  the  truth  that  should 
set  them  free  and  bring  them,  in  spite  of  delays,  in  the  fullness 
of  time  to  "  the  greater  to-morrow." 

Yet  while  Hovey  was  uplifted  by  the  fine  fervor  of  such  a 
faith,  he  experienced  a  reaction  with  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War.  In  the  sudden  self-righteousness  of  an  inflamed 
patriotism  he  nationalized  God  and  deified  war.  Excited  beyond 
measure  by  the  immediate  issue,  he  not  only  justified  America 
against  Spain  but,  forgetting  all  the  lessons  of  evolution,  he 


456        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

declared  that  the  race  could  develop  only  through  the  repetition 
of  old  experiences. 

By  strife  as  well  as  loving  —  strife, 

The  Law  of  Life,  — 

In  brute  and  man  the  climbing  has  been  done 

And  shall  be  done  hereafter.    Since  man  was 

No  upward-climbing  cause 

Without  the  sword  has  ever  yet  been  won. 

His  mistake  lay  in  justifying  all  wars  in  order  to  justify  the 
national  altruism  of  the  war  with  Spain,  and  his  fallacy  came 
in  his  assumption  that  biological  and  physical  life  were  governed 
by  the  same  laws.  For  the  moment  Hovey  turned  "  jingo,"  as 
most  of  his  countrymen  did,  yet  even  then  he  invoked  the 
sword  for  the  suppression  of  tyranny  and  not  in  the  name  of 
nationalistic  ambition. 

The  home  of  Hovey's  imagination  was  where  the  true  poet's 
always  is  —  "  far  in  the  vast  of  sky,  .  .  .  too  high  for  sound  of 
strife,  or  any  violation  of  the  town."  From  this  high  vantage 
point  he  sang  the  glories  of  the  things  he  loved  the  best,  but 
with  maturity  he  moved  from  the  world  of  material  pleasure  to 
the  realms  of  spiritual  adventure.  In  1893  he  wrote 

Down  the  world  with  Mama ! 
That 's  the  life  for  me  ! 
Wandering  with  the  wandering  wind, 
Vagabond  and  unconfined ! 

Five  years  later  he  could  no  longer  catalogue  his  places  on 
the  map,  for  his  goal  was  "  the  unknown  "  and  "  the  wilder 
ness  "  in  pursuit  of  the  high  human  adventure  which  Moody 
was  to  celebrate  in  his  "  Road  Hymn  for  the  Start."  In  a  par 
allel  way  Hovey's  first  conception  of  fellowship  rose  from  the 
early  relish  for  beer  and  song  to  the  fellowship  of  kindred  souls 
of  which  the  fine  flowering  is  the  love  of  man  and  woman. 

Spirit  to  spirit  finds  its  voiceless  way, 

As  tone  melts  meeting  in  accordant  tone,  — 


THE  LATER  POETRY  457 

Oh,  then  our  souls,  far  in  the  vast  of  sky, 

Look  from  a  tower,  too  high  for  sound  of  strife 
Or  any  violation  of  the  town, 

Where  the  great  vacant  winds  of  God  go  by, 
And  over  the  huge  misshapen  city  of  life 
Love  pours  his  silence  and  his  moonlight  down. 

At  the  age  of  thirty-six,  just  on  the  threshold  of  maturity, 
Hovey  died. 

William  Vaughn  Moody  (1869-1910)  was  another  son  of  the 
Middle  West.  Born  in  southern  Indiana,  he  lost  his  mother 
in  his  fifteenth  year  and  his  father,  a  river-steamboat  captain, 
in  his  seventeenth.  By  alternate  study  and  teaching  he  pre 
pared  himself  for  Harvard,  and  entering  at  somewhat  more 
than  the  average  age  he  completed  his  college  work  in  three 
years  and  followed  these  with  a  year  in  Europe  as  private 
tutor.  In  addition  to  a  receptiveness  for  learning  he  had  the 
capacity  for  a  rich  and  varied  culture  which  is  sometimes  mis 
takenly  thought  to  belong  only  to  blue-blooded  inheritors  of 
family  tradition.  From  the  close  of  his  residence  in  Cambridge 
till  his  death,  seventeen  years  later,  Moody's  life  included  long 
and  extended  travels,  varied  and  profound  study,  eight  years' 
teaching  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  from  which  President 
Harper  was  reluctant  to  accept  his  resignation,  and  distinguished 
work  as  painter,  poet,  and  dramatist.  Suddenly  stricken  with  a 
fatal  illness,  he  died  in  1910. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  his  work  as  playwright 
(see  pp.  445,  446).  His  lyric  and  narrative  poems  all  have  the 
same  breadth  of  view  which  is  inherent  in  his  poetic  dramas. 
He  was  familiar  with  a  wide  range  of  the  world's  art  and  litera 
ture,  but  in  the  work  which  he  chose  to  collect  for  republication 
he  was  imitative  of  none.  His  imagination  roved  freely  through 
all  time  and  space.  "  Gloucester  Moors  "  were  the  vantage 
point  from  which  he  conceived  the  earth  as  a  "  vast,  outbound 
ship  of  souls  "  ;  "  Old  Pourquoi "  challenged  the  scheme  of 
creation  from  beneath  the  Norman  sky  ;  "  The  Death  of  Eve  " 


458        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

is  derived  from  the  Hebrew  past,  "  The  Masque  of  Judgment " 
from  the  Greek,  "  A  Dialogue  in  Purgatory  "  from  the  Italian, 
"  The  Fountain  "  from  early  American  legend,  "  On  a  Soldier 
Fallen  in  the  Philippines  "  from  a  current  event.  Thus  he  did 
not  maintain  his  citizenship  of  the  world  by  any  denial  of  alle 
giance  to  America.  In  the  third  section  of  "An  Ode  in  Time 
of  Hesitation  "  he  sketched  as  splendid  a  pageant  of  America 
as  has  ever  been  devised.  The  Cape  Ann  children  seeking  the 
arbutus,  the  hill  lads  of  Tennessee  harking  to  the  wild  geese 
on  their  northern  flight,  are  one  with  the  youth  of  Chicago,  the 
renewing  green  of  the  wheat  fields,  the  unrolling  of  the  rivers 
from  the  white  Sierras,  the  downward  creep  of  Alaskan  glaciers, 
and  the  perennial  palm-crown  of  Hawaii.  It  is  in  very  truth 

the  eagle  nation  Milton  saw, 
Mewing  its  mighty  youth. 

Moody's  love  of  America  did  not  lead  him  to  embrace  the 
"manifest  destiny"  illusion.  He  was  quite  as  conscious  of 
the  misdirection  of  human  leadership  as  he  was  of  the  riches 
with  which  God  had  endowed  the  natural  land.  "  Gloucester 
Moors  "  is  deeply  solicitous  for  a  future  which  seems  to  be  in 
sured  for  the  grasping  capitalist ;  "  The  Brute  "  is  both  more 
vigorous  and  more  hopeful  in  its  certitude  that  the  factory  sys 
tem  in  its  worst  forms  is  a  short-lived  social  abortion.  The 
demon  of  the  machine  is  sure  to  be  caught  and  subdued : 

He  must  give  each  man  his  portion,  each  his  pride  and  worthy  place ; 
He  must  batter  down  the  arrogant  and  lift  the  weary  face. 
On  each  vile  mouth  set  purity,  on  each  low  forehead  grace. 

These  poems  were  of  life  within  America  or  without  it,  but  in 
"  An  Ode  in  Time  of  Hesitation  "  and  "  On  a  Soldier  Fallen  in 
the  Philippines"  Moody  warned  the  rulers  in  Washington  that 
the  country,  now  awake  to  its  duties  in  the  world,  would  for 
give  blindness,  but  baseness  it  would  smite.  Finally,  in  "  The 
Quarry  "  he  cried  out  in  pride  at  America's  fine  part  in  preventing 


THE  LATER  POETRY  459 

the  partitioning  of  helpless  China  by  the  grasping  European 
empires,  —  the  achievement  of  the  poet-diplomat,  John  Hay. 

Throughout  all  Moody 's  work  is  a  constant  undercurrent  of 
evolutionary  thought  —  not  the  brutal  mechanism  associated 
with  the  term  "  Darwinism,"  but  the  aspiring  impulse  within 
all  life  which  makes  it  rise  not  through  struggle  against  outer 
forces  so  much  as  through  the  innate  impulse  to  develop.  In 
the  sardonic  "  Menagerie  "  the  idea  is  ironically  stated  : 

Survival  of  the  fittest,  adaptation, 
And  all  their  other  evolution  terms, 
Seem  to  omit  one  small  consideration, 

which  is  no  less  than  the  existence  of  souls : 

Restless,  plagued,  impatient  things, 
All  dream  and  unaccountable  desire ; 

and  these  souls  are  expressions  of  the  universal  soul  which  finds 
its  own  salvation  in  unceasing  "  groping,  testing,  passing  on," 
—  the  creative  struggle  described  by  Raphael  in  "  The  Masque 
of  Judgment "  as 

The  strife  of  ripening  suns  and  withering  moons, 
Marching  of  ice-floes,  and  the  nameless  wars 
Of  monster  races  laboring  to  be  man. 

In  his  attitude  toward  and  his  literary  treatment  of  woman 
Moody  was  emphatically  modern.  He  was  far  beyond  the  super 
cilious  and  hollow  amenities  with  which  eighteenth-century 
poetry  was  filled,  and  he  was  not  satisfied  with  the  sincerer 
expression  of  deep  personal  tributes  to  individual  women.  In 
his  philosophy  woman  was  the  dominant  influence  in  the  devel 
opment  of  humankind.  Eve  and  Prometheus  were  one  in  seek 
ing  the  knowledge  and  power  to  lift  man  above  brute  creation 
and  in  producing  the  clash  between  God  and  man  which  was 
the  price  of  knowledge  and  the  cost  of  progress.  But  Prome 
theus  was  a  poor  and  defeated  character  in  comparison ;  for 
Moody,  in  Eve  and  Pandora,  presented  woman  not  only  as 


460        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

the  donor  and  the  fulfillment  of  love  but  as  the  final  agent  of 
reconciliation  between  the  human  and  the  divine.  In  the  vari 
ous  poems  there  are  acknowledgments  of  awe,  of  reverence, 
of  spiritual  love,  and  of  passion ;  taken  together  they  show  the 
same  breadth  of  view  that  belongs  to  the  human  equation  in 
which  Moody  regards  woman  as  the  greatest  factor.  It  is  most 
significant  that  the  dramatic  trilogy  was  planned  to  conclude  with 
a  song  of  Eve,  and  that  twice  —  in  "  I  am  the  Woman  "  and 
part  five  of  "The  Death  of  Eve"  —  Moody  composed  studies 
toward  that  final  song  that  was  never  perfected.  Both  progress 
through  the  ages  when  woman  was  subtly  molded  by  man's 
conception  of  her,  so  that  her  happiness  and  her  very  being 
consisted  in  conforming  herself  to  him. 

Still,  still  with  prayer  and  ecstasy  she  strove 
To  be  the  woman  they  did  well  approve, 
That,  narrowed  to  their  love, 
She  might  have  done  with  bitterness  and  blame. 

And  in  both  she  appears  as  the  indomitable  Promethean  spirit 
who  in  the  end  was  to  fulfill  that  plan  which  in  the  beginning 
she  had  endangered.  There  is  no  reference  to  any  woman  in 
in  any  of  Moody 's  poems  which  is  out  of  harmony  with  this 
dominating  and  progressive  idea. 

For  several  reasons  Moody's  poetry  is  not  easy  to  read  and 
is  therefore  undestined  to  wide  popularity  (see  pp.  263,  264). 
He  was  not  interested  to  compose  simple  lyrics  or  narratives. 
Seldom  does  he  aid  the  reader  by  means  of  even  an  implied 
narrative  thread.  The  poems  inspired  by  history  are  not  self- 
explanatory  nor  accompanied  by  footnotes.  Moody  consistently 
employed  events,  whether  actual  or  imagined,  as  mere  avenues 
of  approach  to  emotional  and  spiritual  experiences,  and  he 
expected  the  reader  to  contribute  to  the  poems  from  his  own 
resourceful  imagination.  It  is  because  the  whole  meaning  is 
not  laid  out  on  the  surface  of  his  verses  —  like  Christmas-card 
sentiments  —  that  Moody  has  become  very  largely  a  poet's  poet. 


THE  LATER  POETRY  461 

Their  instinctive  grasp  of  the  figurative  deeper  meanings,  their 
immediate  response  to  elusive  metaphor,  and  their  understand 
ing  of  his  vigorous,  exact,  but  sometimes  recondite  diction  make 
them  his  best  audience.  For  they  too  can  most  nearly  appreciate 
the  distinguished  beauties  of  his  work  —  his  wide  and  intimate 
knowledge  of  world  literature,  the  opulence  of  his  style,  the 
firmness  of  his  structure,  the  scrupulousness  of  his  detail. 
Through  the  rising  and  the  risen  poets  of  the  present  genera 
tion  Moody's  influence  is  exerted  on  thousands  who  are  all 
unconscious  of  it. 

An  approach  to  contemporary  American  poetry  in  a  fraction 
of  a  chapter  at  the  end  of  a  general  history  can  be  justified  on 
only  one  ground  :  it  serves  the  purpose  of  a  guideboard  on  a 
transcontinental  highway.  American  literature  was  not  con 
cluded  with  the  deaths  of  the  great  New  England  group  nor 
has  it  come  to  an  end  since  then.  The  student  should  recog 
nize  this  in  his  respect  for  the  fine  promise  of  what  is  now 
being  written,  and  he  should  recognize  that  the  study  of  our 
past  literature  can  bear  no  richer  fruit  than  a  sane  understand 
ing  of  the  literature  of  the  day.  Furthermore  he  should  be  intel 
ligent  enough  to  see  that  literature  need  not  be  old  to  be  fit 
for  study  —  that  it  is  not  only  absurd  but  vicious  to  assume  (as 
used  to  be  said,  with  a  difference,  of  the  Indian)  that  there  is 
no  good  poet  but  a  dead  poet.  These  few  pages  are  therefore 
devoted  to  a  half-dozen  writers  who  represent  tendencies.  They 
are  arbitrarily  selected  as  the  contemporary  dramatists  in  the 
preceding  chapter  were.  Yet  their  weight  is  greatly  reenforced 
by  the  many  others  to  whom  no  allusion  can  be  made.  A 
comparison  of  the  three  books  on  recent  American  poetry  sug 
gests  the  speed  of  the  literary  current.  Miss  Rittenhouse's  "The 
Younger  American  Poets"  (1904)  includes  eighteen  poets  of 
whom  thirteen  were  born  before  1865.  Miss  Lowell's  "Ten 
dencies  in  Modern  American  Poetry  "  (1917)  includes  six  poets, 
none  of  whom  were  mentioned  in  the  earlier  book,  and  the 
oldest  of  whom  was  born  in  the  closing  days  of  1869.  Of  the 


462        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

sixteen  poets  indicated  by  name  in  the  chapter  headings  of 
Mr.  Louis  Untermeyer's  "New  Era  in  American  Poetry". 
(1919),  only  three  were  born  before  1875. 

The  reading  of  contemporary  poetry  should  be  done  with 
zest  and  without  calculation,  but  the  study  of  the  same  material 
must  be  approached  with  self-conscious  deliberateness  and  with 
a  definite  resolve  not  to  be  carried  away  by  the  cheap  and  easy 
generalizations  current  on  the  lips  of  the  careless  talker.  Con 
temporary  poetry  is  not  all  of  one  kind  nor  is  it  chiefly  char 
acterized  by  defiant  revolt  against  old  forms  and  old  ideas.  It 
is  true  that  in  all  branches  of  artistic  endeavor  new  methods 
and  new  points  of  view  are  being  advanced.  In  music  Debussy 
and  Schoenberg,  in  painting  Cezanne  and  Matisse,  in  sculpture 
Rodin  and  his  disciples,  in  stage  setting  and  costuming  Gordon 
Craig  and  Leon  Bakst,  have  shocked  and  surprised  quite  as 
many  as  they  have  edified,  and  have  given  rise  to  the  same 
sort  of  querulous  protest  indulged  in  by  those  who  talk  as  if  all 
modern  poetry  were  typified  by  the  most  extravagant  verses  of 
Alfred  Kreymborg,  or  "Anne  Knish."  But  in  poetry  most  of 
the  recent  work  has  not  been  wantonly  bizarre,  most  of  the 
more  distinguished  verse  has  not  been  "  free,"  and  most  of 
the  men  and  women  who  have  written  free  verse  have  shown 
and  have  practiced  a  firm  mastery  of  the  established  forms. 
The  point,  then,  is  to  maintain  an  open  mind  and  to  make  sure 
of  conclusions  before  adopting  them,  and  the  surest  method  of 
doing  these  two  student-like  things  is  to  read  and  study  authors 
by  the  bookful  and  not  by  the  pseudo-royal  road  of  antholo 
gies  and  eclectic  magazines.  If  you  want  to  become  acquainted 
with  a  man  you  will  sit  down  at  leisure  with  him  in  his  study, 
instead  of  forming  snapshot  judgments  from  contact  at  after 
noon  teas,  and  you  will  form  your  own  opinion  in  preference 
to  gleaning  it  from  the  conversation  of  others. 
,  Edwin  Arlington  Robinson  (1869-  ),  the  oldest  of  this 

latter  group,  was  born  in  the  same  year  with  Moody  and  is  now 
in  the  prime  of  life.    The  Tilbury  of  many  of  his  poems  is  really 


THE  LATER  POETRY  463 

the  town  of  his  upbringing  —  Gardiner,  Maine.  It  is  an  unusual 
but  not  a  unique  village  in  America  —  a  colonial  old-world  vil 
lage.  The  atmosphere  of  Puritanism  had  not  been  blown  away 
from  it,  and  it  still  felt  the  subtle  influence  of  a  preeminent 
family.  When  "  the  squire  "  passed, 

We  people  on  the  pavement  looked  at  him ; 
He  was  a  gentleman  from  sole  to  crown, 
Clean-favored,  and  imperially  slim. 

It  is  easy  to  think  of  Tilbury  as  an  English  town ;  it  is 
utterly  different  from  Lindsay's  Springfield  or  Masters's  Spoon 
River.  It  is  not  without  significance  that  the  clearest  single 
picture  presents  a  little  boy  of  twelve  as  the  companion  of 
"  Isaac  and  Archibald,"  two  old  men  on  the  ominous  verge  of 
superannuation.  It  was  life  in  Gardiner  that  gives  so  real  a 
sense  of  the  town  on  the  Avon  in  ff  Ben  Jonson  Entertains 
a  Man  from  Stratford."  In  1891  Mr.  Robinson  entered  Har 
vard,  withdrawing  at  the  end  of  two  years  and  entering  business 
in  New  York  City.  Here  he  remained  till  1910,  the  last  five 
years  as  an  appointee  of  President  Roosevelt  in  the  New  York 
Customhouse,  and  since  the  latter  date  he  has  lived  again  in 
Gardiner,  bearing  some  resemblance  in  his  mellowed  maturity, 
perhaps,  to  Larry  Scammon  in  his  play  "  The  Porcupine." 

As  a  matter  of  literary  history  the  most  striking  fact  about 
Mr.  Robinson  is  that  the  poetry-reading  public  has  been  re 
developed  since  he  began  to  write.  Although  his  first  volume, 
"The  Children  of  the  Night,"  appeared  in  1897,  and  his  second, 
"  Captain  Craig,"  in  1902,  it  was  possible  for  him  to  be  omitted 
from  "  The  Younger  American  Poets  "  of  1904.  With  "  The 
Town  down  the  River  "in  1910  his  recognition  began  to  come, 
and  with  the  republication  of  "  Captain  Craig  "  the  public  be 
came  aware  of  a  volume  which  they  could  have  been  reading 
for  full  thirteen  years. 

Miss  Lowell  displays  a  mild  contempt  for  the  title  poem  of 
this  book,  and  Mr.  Phelps  —  in  his  "  Advance  of  English 


464        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Poetry  in  the  Twentieth  Century"  —  echoes  her  verdict.  Yet 
for  many  readers  there  is  a  splendor  in  it  and  a  richness  that 
brings  them  back  to  it  again  and  again.  It  is  doubtless  long, 
discursive,  and  condensible.  In  fact  it  is  already  condensed  in 
such  a  bit  as  "  Flammonde."  It  is  an  elaboration  of  the  title 
lyric  for  "  The  Children  of  the  Night "  ;  but  only  a  wanton  per 
version  of  criticism  will  discount  a  philosophical  poem  for  not 
submitting  to  lyric  standards.  It  is  a  poem  of  childhood,  sun 
light,  laughter,  and  hope  declaimed  by  an  indomitable  old  vaga 
bond  of  eternity  who  is  invincible  in  death  and  is  fittingly 
borne  to  the  grave  while  the  trombones  of  the  Tilbury  band 
blare  the  Dead  March  in  "  Saul."  Captain  Craig  is  a  character 
who  would  not  be  his  complete  self  without  his  verbosity.  His 
type,  in  fact,  is  never  succinct.  They  are  extravagant  of  time, 
of  gesture,  of  vocal  and  rhetorical  emphasis,  of  words  them 
selves.  Out  of  the  abundance  of  their  hearts  their  mouths 
speak  all  sorts  of  irresponsible,  whimsical,  exalted,  and  splendid 
extravagance.  They  give  voice  to  the  dumb,  and  they  amuse 
and  stimulate  the  good  listeners,  but  they  bore  the  cleverly 
communicative,  who  dislike  any  consecutive  talk  but  their  own. 
Thus,  for  example,  the  captain  writes  on  one  May  day : 

I  have  yearned 

In  many  another  season  for  these  days, 
And  having  them  with  God's  own  pageantry 
To  make  me  glad  for  them,  —  yes,  I  have  cursed 
The  sunlight  and  the  breezes  and  the  leaves 
To  think  of  men  on  stretchers  and  on  beds, 

Or  of  women  working  where  a  man  would  fall  — 

Flat-breasted  miracles  of  cheerfulness 

Made  neuter  by  the  work  that  no  man  counts 

Until  it  waits  undone  ;  children  thrown 

To  feed  their  veins  and  souls  with  offal.  .  .  . 

Yes, 

I  have  had  half  a  mind  to  blow  my  brains  out 
Sometimes ;  and  I  have  gone  from  door  to  door 


THE  LATER  POETRY  465 

Ragged  myself,  trying  to  do  something  — 
Crazy,  I  hope.  —  But  what  has  this  to  do 
With  Spring  ?    Because  one  half  of  humankind 
Lives  here  in  hell,  shall  not  the  other  half 
Do  any  more  than  just  for  conscience'  sake 
Be  miserable  ?   Is  this  the  way  for  us 
To  lead  these  creatures  up  to  find  the  light, 
Or  the  way  to  be  drawn  down  to  find  the  dark 
Again  ? 

Captain  Craig,  in  a  word,  is  self-expression  in  very  being 
and  condemns  in  joyous  scorn  the  man  who  believes  that  life 
is  best  fulfilled  through  discipline  and  renunciation.  Instead  he 
offers  something  positive : 

Take  on  yourself 

But  your  sincerity,  and  you  take  on 
Good  promise  for  all  climbing ;  fly  for  truth, 
And  hell  shall  have  no  storm  to  crush  your  flight, 
No  laughter  to  vex  down  your  loyalty. 

This  is  the  note  throughout  all  Robinson's  poems  and  plays. 
His  disbelief  in  negativism  leads  him  often  to  be  impatient  and 
caustic  and  leads  the  cloudy  minded  to  timid  deprecation  of  his 
cynicism,  not  knowing  the  difference  between  this  and  irony ; 
but  Mr.  Robinson  is  never  cynical  toward  the  things  that  are 
more  excellent.  He  is  only  convinced  that  people's  Puritan 
convictions  as  to  what  is  more  excellent  result  in  a  perverted 
estimate ;  he  is  only  attempting  to  substitute  light  for  shadow, 
laughter  for  gloom ;  he  is  only  saying  with  Larry  Scammon  : 

"  Stop  me  if  I  am  too  cheerful ;  but  at  the  same  time,  if  I  can  in 
stil  the  fertile  essence  of  Hope  into  this  happy  household,  for  God's 
sake,  let  me  do  it.  ...  You  had  far  better  —  all  of  you  —  begin  to 
get  yourselves  out  of  your  own  light,  and  cease  to  torment  your 
long-bedevilled  heads  with  the  dark  doings  of  bogies  that  have  no 
real  existence." 

As  a  craftsman  Mr.  Robinson  has  won  distinction  by  his 
simple,  direct  realism.  He  employs  for  the  most  part  the  old 


466       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE       . 

iambic  measures,  a  sentence  structure  which  is  often  conversa 
tional,  and  a  diction  which  is  severe  in  its  restraint.  There  are 
few  "purple  patches"  in  his  poetry,  but  there  are  many  clear 
flashes  of  incisive  phrasing.  His  work  is  like  a  May  day  in  his 
own  seacoast  town  —  not  balmy,  but  bracing,  with  lots  of  sparkle 
on  the  blue,  and  the  taste  of  the  east  wind  through  it  all. 

Robert  Frost  (1875-  )is  known  as  the  author  of  three 
books  of  verse:  "A  Boy's  Will,"  1913,  "North  of  Boston," 
1914,  and  "Mountain  Interval,"  1916.  He  is  known  also  — 
and  rightly  —  as  the  voice  and  embodiment  of  rural  New  Eng 
land.  Yet  he  was  born  in  San  Francisco,  his  mother  was  born 
in  Edinburgh,  he  first  came  to  New  England  at  the  age  of  ten, 
and  he  lived  for  the  next  eight  schoolboy  years  in  a  mill  town, 
Lawrence,  Massachusetts.  Nevertheless,  in  his  capacity  for 
receiving  impressions,  he  seemed  to  have  a  selective  memory 
which  made  him  sensitive  to  the  aspects  of  country  life  in  the 
regions  north  of  Boston — the  regions  trod  by  nine  generations 
of  forbears  on  his  father's  side  of  the  family.  And  so  it  was 
that  though  his  first  two  volumes  were  published  in  London, 
there  is  no  local  trace  of  the  old  country  in  them,  nothing  in 
them  that  he  had  not  known  in  farm  or  village  between  1885 
and  1912,  when  he  set  sail  with  his  wife  and  children  toward 
a  residence  of  two  and  a  half  years  in  England.  On  his  return 
to  America  he  bought  a  farm  in  New  Hampshire.  Since  1916 
he  has  taught  in  Amherst  College. 

The  common  statement  that  Mr.  Frost  is  content  solely  to 
present  the  appearances  of  New  England  life  should  be  given 
distinct  qualifications  in  two  respects :  the  first  is  that  his 
earliest  book,  "A  Boy's  Will,"  is  wholly  subjective  and  ana 
lytical,  completely  falling  outside  the  generalization.  And  the 
second  is  that  while  "  North  of  Boston "  and  "  Mountain 
Interval "  are  objective  pictures  of  New  England  life,  the  truth 
in  them  is  by  no  means  limited  to  New  England,  but  is  perti 
nent  to  human  kind,  although  deeply  tinged  with  the  hue  of 
that  particular  district. 


THE  LATER  POETRY  467 

"A  Boy's  Will,"  a  little  volume,  is  made  up  of  thirty-two  lyrics, 
each  of  them  complete  and  most  of  them  lovely.  They  are  not, 
however,  detached,  although  it  is  an  open  question  how  many 
readers  would  see  their  relationship  if  this  were  not  indicated  in 
the  table  of  contents.  It  is  the  record  of  a  young  artist's  experi 
ence  who  marries,  withdraws  to  the  country,  revels  in  the  isolation 
of  winter,  in  the  coming  of  spring,  and  in  the  farm  beauties  of 
summer.  This  isolation,  however,  cannot  satisfy  him  long.  Let 
the  contents  for  Part  Two  show  what  happens :  "  '  Revelation '  — 
He  resolves  to  become  intelligible,  at  least  to  himself,  since 
there  is  no  help  else  — '  The  Trial  by  Existence '  —  and  to 
know  definitely  what  he  thinks  about  the  soul ;  '  In  Equal 
Sacrifice  '  —  about  love  ;  '  The  Tuft  of  Flowers  '  —  about  fel 
lowship  ;  '  Spoils  of  the  Dead  '  —  about  death  ;  '  Pan  with  Us ' 
—  about  art  (his  own) ;  *  The  Demiurge's  Laugh  '  —  about 
science."  With  the  five  lyrics  of  Part  Three,  the  youth  and 
his  bride  return  to  the  world  with  misgivings : 

Out  through  the  fields  and  the  woods 
And  over  the  walls  I  have  wended ; 

I  have  climbed  the  hills  of  view 

And  looked  at  the  world,  and  descended ; 

I  have  come  by  the  highway  home, 
And  lo,  it  is  ended. 

Ah,  when  to  the  heart  of  man 

Was  it  ever  less  than  a  treason 
To  go  with  the  drift  of  things, 

To  yield  with  a  grace  to  reason, 
And  bow  and  accept  the  end 

Of  a  love  or  a  season  ? 

This  book  does  not  represent  the  work  of  Frost  as  it  appears 
in  his  later  volumes,  but  it  does  represent  the  poet  himself : 

A  lover  of  the  meadows  and  the  woods, 
And  mountains ;  and  of  all  that  we  behold 
From  this  green  earth. 


468        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  second  volume,  "  North  of  Boston,"  is  twice  as  long  as 
"  A  Boy's  Will  "  and  contains  half  as  many  titles.  There 
would  be  nothing  in  this  mathematical  formula  if  it  did  not 
carry  with  it  a  real  difference  in  content.  But  this  second 
book  is  made  up  not  of  lyrics,  but  of  unimpassioned  vignettes 
of  New  England  life.  This  is  the  grim  New  England  which 
the  poet  attempted  to  shut  out  in  "  Love  and  a  Question  "  : 

But  whether  or  not  a  man  was  asked, 

To  mar  the  love  of  two 
By  harboring  woe  in  the  bridal  house, 

The  bridegroom  wished  he  knew. 

The  book  presents  the  death  of  a  farm  laborer,  the  maddened 
bereavement  of  a  mother  whose  child  is  buried  within  sight 
of  the  house,  the  black  prospect  faced  by  a  household  drudge 
who  faces  the  insanity  which  is  an  inherited  blight  in  her  blood. 
They  are  not  amiable  pictures,  and  they  offer  neither  problem 
nor  solution,  only  the  life  itself.  They  are  not,  however,  all 
equally  grim.  "The  Mountain"  tells  of  a  township  of  sixty 
voters  with  only  a  fringe  of  level  land  around  the  looming 
pile.  It  dominates  life,  limits  it,  and  rises  above  it,  for  few 
have  either  time  or  curiosity  to  reach  the  top.  "  The  Black 
Cottage  "  presents  a  widowed  relict  of  the  Civil  War  who  knew 
only  her  sacrifice  and  whose  unthinking  orthodoxy  was  as  hazy 
as  her  political  creed.  With  liberalism  in  the  parish,  the 
preacher  was  inclined  to  omit  "descended  into  Hades"  from 
the  ritual : 

....  We  could  drop  them 

Only  —  there  was  the  bonnet  in  the  pew. 

Such  a  phrase  could  n't  have  meant  much  to  her. 

But  suppose  she  had  missed  it  from  the  Creed 

As  a  child  misses  the  unsaid  Good-night, 

And  falls  asleep  with  heartache  —  how  should  I  feel  ? 

Of  another  sort  are  the  poems  which  have  most  of  outdoor 
in  them  :  "  Mending  Wall,"  the  symbol  of  barriers  between 
properties  which  the  winters  throw  down ;  "  Blueberries,"  which 


THE  LATER  POETRY  469 

indicates  the  complex  of  ownership  in  a  countryside  filled  with 
nature's  gifts  of  uncultivated  fruit;  "After  Apple  Picking," 
the  weariness  forced  upon  the  farmer  in  his  effort  to  husband 
an  embarrassment  of  orchard  riches;  and  "The  Woodpile"  with 
its  suggestion  of  the  slow  processes  of  nature  contrasted  with 
the  temporal  efforts  of  man.  The  woodpile  is  discovered  far 
out  in  a  swamp,  long  abandoned  and  vine-covered  : 

....    I  thought  that  only 
Someone  who  lived  in  turning  to  fresh  tasks 
Could  so  forget  his  handiwork  on  which 
He  spent  himself,  the  labour  of  his  axe, 
And  leave  it  there  far  from  a  useful  fireplace 
To  warm  the  frozen  swamp  as  best  it  could 
With  the  slow  smokeless  burning  of  decay. 

The  last  volume,  "  Mountain  Interval,"  is  something  of  a 
composite,  with  elements  in  both  the  former  two.  One  reads 
Mr.  Frost's  pages  thoughtfully  and  leaves  them  in  a  thoughtful 
mood.  Not  all  are  grim,  but  very  few  are  gay.  They  have  the 
rock-ribbed  austerity  of  the  country  from  which  they  spring  and 
some  of  its  beauty,  too.  They  are  suffused  with  the  smoky  haze 
of  an  Indian-summer  day. 

Edgar  Lee  Masters  (1869-  )  was  born  in  Kansas  in  the 
same  year  with  Moody  and  Robinson.  In  the  next  year  his 
family  moved  to  Illinois,  which  is  his  real  "  native  "  state.  As 
a  boy  he  had  wide  opportunities  for  reading.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-one  he  entered  Knox  College  and  plunged  with  zest 
into  the  study  of  the  classics,  but  was  forced  to  withdraw  at 
the  end  of  the  year  because  Mr.  Masters,  Sr.,  would  acknowl 
edge  no  value  in  these  studies  for  the  practice  of  law,  toward 
which  he  was  directing  his  son.  After  a  brief  experiment 
in  independence  the  young  man  surrendered  and  eventually 
entered  on  a  successful  career  as  a  Chicago  attorney.  Yet  the 
law  did  not  take  complete  possession  of  him  ;  he  has  always 
been  a  devoted  reader  of  Greek  literature.  "  Songs  and  Satires," 
published  in  1916,  contains  a  few  lyrics  from  a  volume  of  1898 


470        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

which  was  printed,  but  through  an  accident  of  the  trade  never 
published.    One  of  these  ends  with  the  significant  stanza : 

Helen  of  Troy,  Greek  art 
Hath  made  our  heart  thy  heart, 

Thy  love  our  love. 
For  poesy,  like  thee, 
Must  fly  and  wander  free 

As  the  wild  dove. 

Mr.  Masters 's  next  venture  was  a  poetic  drama  in  1900, 
"  Maximilian,"  a  tragedy  in  verse  which  was  accorded  a  few 
sympathetic  reviews  but  no  wide  reading.  Other  works  followed 
in  the  next  fifteen  years,  some  in  law  and  some  in  literature. 
And  finally,  in  1915,  appeared  the  "  Spoon  River  Anthology." 
This  is  in  all  probability  the  most  widely  circulated  book  of  new 
poems  in  the  history  of  American  literature ;  others  may  have 
achieved  a  greater  total  of  copies  during  a  long  career,  but  it  is 
doubtful  whether  any  others  have  equaled  fifty  thousand  within 
three  years  of  publication. 

The  most  valuable  single  utterance  on  this  much-discussed 
work  is  the  richly  compacted  preface  of  Mr.  Masters  in  "Toward 
the  Gulf,"  with  its  inscription  to  William  Marion  Reedy. 
Mr.  Masters  had  submitted  various  contributions  to  Reedy's 
Mirror,  but  had  received  most  of  them  back  with  friendly 
appeals  for  something  fresh.  The  first  five  Spoon  River  epi 
taphs  were  written  almost  casually  in  answer  to  this  repeated 
challenge.  At  the  same  time  they  were  a  more  than  casual 
application  of  a  hint  from  the  Greek :  a  "  resuscitation  of  the 
Greek  epigrams,  ironical  and  tender,  satirical  and  sympathetic," 
assembled  into  an  ultimate  collection  of  nearly  two  hundred  and 
fifty  brief  units,  each  a  self-inscribed  epitaph  by  one  of  the 
Spoon  River  townsfolk.  These  represent  the  chief  types  in  an 
American  country  town  and  recognize  in  particular  the  usual 
line  of  cleavage  between  those  who  choose  to  be  considered 
virtuous  and  those  who  do  not  care  what  they  are  considered. 
Unfortunately  the  first  of  these  classes  includes  both  the  idealist 


THE  LATER  POETRY  471 

and  the  hypocrite ;  and  the  second,  both  the  conscious  radical 
and  the  confirmed  reprobate.  A  typical  issue  which  might  arise 
in  such  a  town,  as  well  as  a  typical  alignment  of  forces,  is  de 
scribed  in  "The  Spooniad,"  the  closing  mock-heroic  fragment 
and  the  longest  unit  in  the  book. 

The  "Anthology  "  has  been  violently  assailed  as  a  wantonly 
cynical  production,  each  assault  on  this  ground  carrying  within 
itself  a  proof  that  the  censor  either  had  not  read  the  book  through 
or  did  not  understand  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  most  impres 
sive  element  in  the  book  and  the  one  which  bulks  largest  in  the 
last  quarter  of  it  are  the  victorious  idealists.  There  is  Davis 
Matlock,  who  decided  to  live  life  out  like  a  god,  sure  of  immor 
tality.  There  is  Tennessee  Claflin  Shope,  who  asserted  the  sover 
eignty  of  his  own  soul,  and  Samuel  Gardiner,  who  determined 
to  live  largely  in  token  of  his  ample  spirit,  and  the  Village 
Atheist,  who  knew  that  only  those  who  strive  mightily  could 
possess  eternal  life,  and  Lydia  Humphrey,  who  in  her  church 
found  the  vision  of  the  poets.  In  spite  of  the  protests  of  readers 
who  were  so  disgusted  with  the  Inferno  of  the  earlier  portion 
that  they  never  progressed  to  the  concluding  Paradiso,  the 
book  achieved  its  great  circulation  among  a  tolerant  public  and 
enviable  applause  from  the  most  discriminating  critics. 

"  Spoon  River "  established  Mr.  Masters's  reputation  and 
prepared  the  public  for  further  thrills  and  shocks  in  the  vol 
umes  to  follow.  This  expectation  has  been  only  half  fulfilled. 
The  certainty  of  a  public  hearing  has  naturally  encouraged  the 
poet  to  more  rapid  production,  but  the  subsequent  books  — 
"  Songs  and  Satires"  and  "The  Great  Valley"  of  1916  and 
"Toward  the  Gulf"  of  1918 — have  been  divided  both  in 
tone  and  content  between  the  caustic  informality  for  which 
Mr.  Masters  was  known  in  his  earlier  work  and  the  classic 
finish  which  is  a  return  to  his  unknown,  earliest  style. 

In  his  treatment  of  sex,  however,  Mr.  Masters  has  supplied 
the  shocks  and  thrills  expected,  dealing  with  various  aspects 
of  passion  with  a  frank  minuteness  which  is  sometimes 


472        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

distasteful  and  sometimes  morbid.  Uusually  his  discussions  of 
passion  are  more  analytical  than  picturesque.  He  assumes  its 
existence  as  a  dominant  factor  in  life  and  discusses  not  the  ex 
perience  itself  so  much  as  its  influence.  Frequently  whole  poems 
are  concerned  with  it.  He  takes  for  granted  passionate  love 
without  benefit  of  clergy,  recording  it  without  either  idealizing 
it  or  defending  it.  Doubtless  life  has  included  the  material  for 
the  "  Dialogue  at  Perko's,"  f°r  "  Victor  Rafolski  on  Art,"  and 
for  "Widow  La  Rue,"  and  certainly  modern  poetry  supplies 
parallels  in  the  works  of  other  men.  In  a  more  significant  way 
the  sex  psychology  of  Freud  crops  out  in  many  poems  not 
ostensibly  devoted  to  it,  as,  for  example,  in  "  To-morrow  is  my 
Birthday."  This  soliloquy  attributed  to  Shakespeare  in  his 
tercentenary  year  stands  in  striking  contrast  to  Mr.  Robinson's 
"  Ben  Jonson  Entertains  a  Man  from  Stratford."  In  these 
two  poems  (of  about  four  hundred  lines  each)  Mr.  Robinson 
writes  in  the  manner  of  Ben  Jonson,  paying  his  tribute  to 
Shakespeare  at  the  height  of  his  powers  in  London,  touching 
on  his  susceptibility  to  women  but  passing  this  to  dilate  on  his 
almost  superhuman  wisdom ;  Mr.  Masters  devotes  the  last  two 
thirds  of  Shakespeare's  monologue  on  the  night  of  his  last 
carousal  to  sex  confessions  which  become  increasingly  gross  as 
the  bard  becomes  increasingly  drunk.  Mr.  Robinson's  passage 
is  only  a  few  lines  in  length  and  concludes : 

There 's  no  long  cry  for  going  into  it, 
However,  and  we  don't  know  much  about  it. 

Mr.  Masters's  approaches  two  hundred  and  fifty  lines,  begins 
with  "  The  thing  is  sex,"  continues  with 

Give  me  a  woman,  Ben,  and  I  will  pick 

Out  of  this  April,  by  this  larger  art 

Of  fifty-two,  such  songs  as  we  have  heard, 

Both  you  and  I,  when  weltering  in  the  clouds 

Of  that  eternity  which  comes  in  sleep, 

Or  in  the  viewless  spinning  of  the  soul 

When  most  intense, 


THE  LATER  POETRY  473 

and  ends  with  common  brothel  profanity.  The  popular  method 
of  justifying  the  Masters  treatment  is  to  gibe  at  the  Robinson 
reticence  as  Puritan  prudishness,  but  it  is  a  gibe  which  for 
many  enforces  the  value  of  reticence  even  in  modern  art. 

So  much  for  the  negative  side  of  Mr.  Masters's  work  —  the 
so-called  cynicism  declaimed  at  by  the  inattentive  reader  and 
the  preoccupation  with  sex  which  is  fairly  open  to  criticism. 
On  the  positive  side  the  greater  weight  of  his  work  lies  in 
poems  of  searching  analysis.  "  So  We  Grew  Together "  is 
the  changing  relations  of  an  adopted  son  for  his  Bohemian 
father;  "Excluded  Middle,"  an  inquiry  into  the  mystery  of 
inheritance ;  "  Dr.  Scudder's  Clinical  Lecture,"  the  study  of 
a  paranoiac  —  dramatic  monologues  suggestive  of  Browning  in 
execution  as  well  as  content.  The  reader  of  Mr.  Masters  as 
a  whole  is  bound  to  discover  in  the  end  that  all  these  analyses 
are  searchings  into  the  mystery  of  life.  It  appears  in  "  The 
Loom"  as  it  does  in  "The  Cry": 

There 's  a  voice  in  my  heart  that  cries  and  cries  for  tears. 
It  is  not  a  voice,  but  a  pain  of  many  years. 
It  is  not  a  pain,  but  the  rune  of  far-off  spheres. 

Deep  in  darkness  the  bulb  under  mould  and  clod 
Feels  the  sun  in  the  sky  and  pushes  above  the  sod ; 
Perhaps  this  cry  in  my  heart  is  nothing  but  God ! 

And  he  is  bound  to  confess  that  Mr.  Masters,  instead  of 
being  a  cynic,  is  a  sober  optimist.  Take  the  last  lines  of  the 
opening  and  closing  poems  in  "  Toward  the  Gulf  "  : 

And  forever  as  long  as  the  river  flows  toward  the  Gulf 

Ulysses  reincarnate  shall  come 

To  guard  our  places  of  sleep, 

Till  East  and  West  shall  be  one  in  the  west  of  heaven  and  earth ! 

"  And  after  that  ? " 

"  Another  spring  —  that 's  all  I  know  myself, 
There  shall  be  springs  and  springs  1 " 


474        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Nicholas  Vachel  Lindsay  (1879-  ),  born  in  Springfield, 
Illinois,  of  which  he  is  the  most  devoted  and  distinguished 
citizen  since  Lincoln,  studied  for  three  years  at  Hiram  College 
and  then  for  five  years  as  an  art  student  in  Chicago  and  New 
York.  Unfortunately  his  drawings  are  accessible  only  in  a 
quarto  pamphlet — "A  Letter  to  Program  Managers" — which 
is  not  for  sale.  They  show  the  same  vigor  and  the  same 
antic  play  of  fancy  inherent  in  his  verse.  In  1906  he  took 
his  first  long  tramp  through  Florida,  Georgia,  and  the  Caro- 
linas,  and  in  1908  a  second  through  the  northeastern  states. 
During  these  two,  as  in  his  latest  like  excursion  through  the 
Western  wheat  belt,  he  traveled  as  a  minstrel,  observing  the 
following  rules  : 

(1)  Keep  away  from  the  cities. 

(2)  Keep  away  from  the  railroads. 

(3)  Have  nothing  to  do  with  money.    Carry  no  baggage. 

(4)  Ask  for  dinner  about  quarter  after  eleven. 

(5)  Ask  for  supper,  lodging  and  breakfast  about  quarter  of  five. 

(6)  Travel  alone. 

(7)  Be  neat,  truthful,  civil  and  on  the  square. 

(8)  Preach  the  Gospel  of  Beauty. 

These  appeared  at  the  head  of  a  little  pamphlet  entitled 
"  Rhymes  to  be  Traded  for  Bread,"  the  only  baggage  he  car 
ried  besides  a  further  printed  statement  called  "  The  Gospel 
of  Beauty."  In  smiling  defense  of  his  course  Mr.  Lindsay 
has  said  that  up  to  date  there  has  been  no  established  method 
for  implanting  beauty  in  the  heart  of  the  average  American. 
Until  such  a  way  has  been  determined  upon  by  a  competent 
committee,  I  must  be  pardoned  for  taking  my  own  course  and 
trying  any  experiment  I  please."  Mr.  Lindsay  has  not  limited 
himself  to  this -way  of  circulating  his  ideas.  He  has  posted 
his  poems  on  billboards,  recited  them  from  soap  boxes  and 
on  the  vaudeville  stage,  and  has  even  descended  to  select 
club  audiences.  He  has,  however,  not  allowed  the  calls  of  the 
lyceum  managers  to  convert  him  from  a  poet  to  an  entertainer. 


THE  LATER  POETRY  475 

His  books  have  been  six  in  number  and,  according  to  his 
own  advice,  are  to  be  read  in  the  following  order :  "  A  Handy 
Guide  for  Beggars,"  "  Adventures  while  Preaching  the  Gospel 
of  Beauty,"  "The  Art  of  the  Moving  Picture,"  "General 
William  Booth  Enters  into  Heaven,"  "The  Congo,"  and 
"  The  Chinese  Nightingale."  The  first  three  are  prose  state 
ments  of  his  social  and*  religious  philosophy ;  the  second  three 
are  poems.  His  seventh  volume  is  announced  as  "The  Golden 
Book  of  Springfield."  In  its  title  it  is  a  reaffirmation  of  what 
appears  in  many  of  his  poems  and  of  what  he  stated  in  "  The 
Gospel  of  Beauty"  (1912):  "The  things  most  worth  while 
are  one's  own  hearth  and  neighborhood.  We  should  make  our 
own  home  and  neighborhood  the  most  democratic,  the  most 
beautiful,  and  the  holiest  in  the  world." 

The  obvious  first  point  about  the  poetry  of  Mr.  Lindsay  is 
that  in  it  he  lives  up  to  his  own  instructions.  He  keeps  quite 
as  close  to  his  own  district  as  Mr.  Masters  and  Mr.  Frost  do 
and  he  indulges  in  as  wide  a  play  of  imagination  as  does 
Mr.  Robinson.  In  the  role  of  an  apostle  he  tries  to  implant 
beauty  in  the  heart  of  the  average  American.  Yet  "  implant  " 
is  not  the  proper  word  ;  his  own  word  is  "  establish,"  for  he  re- 
enforces  a  latent  sense  of  beauty  in  hearts  that  are  unconscious 
of  it  and  he  reveals  it  in  the  lives  of  those  whom  the  average 
American  overlooks  or  despises.  On  the  one  hand,  he  carries 
whole  audiences  into  an  actual  participation  in  his  recitals  and, 
on  the  other,  he  discloses  the  "  scum  of  the  earth  "  as  poets 
and  mystics. 

Thus  "  General  William  Booth  Enters  into  Heaven  "  tells 
of  Booth's  apotheosis  as  it  is  seen  and  felt  by  a  Salvation 
Army  sympathizer.  Booth  with  his  big  bass  drum,  followed  by 
a  motley  slum  crowd,  leads  to  the  most  impressively  magnifi 
cent  place  within  the  ken  of  a  small-town  Middle  Westerner. 
This  is  an  Illinois  courthouse  square.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
is  bleak,  treeless,  dust-blown,  mud-moated  —  the  dome  of  the 
courthouse  in  the  middle,  flanked  on  all  sides  with  ugly  brick 


476        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

blocks  and  alternating  wooden  shacks  with  corrugated  iron 
false  fronts  ;  but  this  is  splendor  to  the  mind  of  the  narrator. 
And  so  in  all  reverence  he  says : 

(Sweet  flute  music) 

Jesus  came  from  out  the  court-house  door, 
Stretched  his  hands  above  the  passing  poor. 
Booth  saw  not,  but  led  his  queer  ones  there 
Round  and  round  the  mighty  court-house  square. 

From  this  scene  General  Booth  ascends  into  heaven.  "  The 
Congo"  is  a  similar  piece  of  interpretation.  Few  types  could 
seem  more  hopeless  than  the  levee  negroes,  yet  through  them 
Mr.  Lindsay  makes  a  study  of  their  race.  In  a  drunken  saloon 
crowd  he  sees  the  basic  savagery  which  back  in  the  Congo 
forests  displays  itself  in  picturesque  poetry  stuff.  In  a  group 
of  crapshooters  who  laugh  down  a  police  raid  he  finds  the 
irrepressible  high  spirits  which  carry  the  negroes  in  imagina 
tion  back  to  a  regal  Congo  cakewalk,  and  in  the  exhorta 
tions  of  an  African  evangelist  he  sees  the  same  hope  of 
religion  which  the  slave  brought  with  him  from  his  native 
soil.  Once  again,  "The  Chinese  Nightingale"  is  written  in 
the  same  spirit,  this  time  accounting  for  the  Chinese  laundry- 
man's  tireless  industry  through  the  fact  that  while  his  iron 
pounds  in  the  dead  of  night  he  is  living  in  a  world  of 
oriental  romance. 

Mr.  Lindsay's  poetry  has  two  chief  aspects,  sometimes  sep 
arated,  sometimes  compounded.  One  of  these  is  an  ethical 
seriousness.  He  might  be  called  an  ideally  provincial  character. 
He  chooses  to  express  himself  in  terms  of  his  home  and 
neighborhood,  but  his  interests  move  out  through  a  series  of 
concentric  circles  which  include  his  city,  his  state,  America, 
and  the  world  federation.  The  poems  on  Springfield,  therefore, 
are  of  a  piece  with  the  poems  on  "  America  Watching  the 
War"  and  those  on  "America  at  War."  "The  Soul  of  the 
City,"  with  Mr.  Lindsay's  own  drawings,  is  quite  as  interesting 


THE  LATER  POETRY  477 

as  any  of  the  poems  above  mentioned.  "  Springfield  Magical  " 
suggests  the  source  of  his  inspiration : 

In  this,  the  City  of  my  Discontent, 

Sometimes  there  comes  a  whisper  from  the  grass, 

"  Romance,  Romance  —  is  here.    No  Hindu  town 

Is  quite  so  strange.    No  Citadel  of  Brass 

By  Sinbad  found,  held  half  such  love  and  hate ; 

No  picture-palace  in  a  picture-book 

Such  webs  of  Friendship,  Beauty,  Greed  and  Fate !  " 

"The  Proud  Farmer,"  "The  Illinois  Village,"  and  "On  the 
Building  of  Springfield" — three  poems  which  conclude  the 
General  William  Booth  volume  —  are  all  on  his  favorite  thesis 
and  were  favorites  with  his  farmhouse  auditors. 

His  poems  related  to  the  war  reveal  him  as  an  ardent  demo 
crat,  a  hater  of  tyranny,  a  peace-loving  socialist,  and,  in  the 
end,  like  millions  of  his  countrymen,  a  combatant  pacifist,  but 
none  the  less  a  pacifist  in  the  larger  sense.  A  pair  of  stanzas, 
"  Concerning  Emperors,"  are  a  very  pretty  cue  both  to  himself 
and  his  convictions.  The  first  in  fervent  seriousness  prays  for 
new  regicides ;  the  second  states  the  case  unsmilingly,  but  as 
it  might  be  put  to  any  newsboy,  concluding : 

And  yet  I  cannot  hate  the  Kaiser  (I  hope  you  understand). 
Yet  I  chase  the  thing  he  stands  for  with  a  brickbat  in  my  hand. 

This  leads  naturally  to  his  verses  of  fancy  and  whimsy,  like 
the  group  called  the  "Christmas  Tree,"  "loaded  with  pretty 
toys,"  or  the  twenty  poems  in  which  the  moon  is  the  chief 
figure  of  speech.  And  these  lead  naturally  to  his  distinctive 
work  in  connection  with  poetic  form,  his  fanciful  and  often 
whimsical  experiments  in  restoring  the  half-chanted  Greek 
choral  odes  to  modern  usage  —  what  W.  B.  Yeats  calls  "the 
primitive  singing  of  music "  (expounding  it  charmingly  in 
the  volume  "  Ideas  of  Good  and  Evil ").  Mr.  Lindsay,  in  the 
"  Congo  "  volume  has  indicated  on  some  of  the  margins  ways 
in  which  the  verses  might  be  chanted.  Before  many  audiences 


478        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

he  has  illustrated  his  intent  with  awkwardly  convincing  effec 
tiveness.  And  with  the  Poem  Games,  printed  with  "  The 
Chinese  Nightingale,"  he  has  actually  enlisted  unsuspecting 
audiences  as  choruses  and  sent  them  home  thrilled  and 
amused  at  their  awakened  poetic  susceptibility.  Mr.  Lindsay's 
theories  are  briefly  indicated  in  the  two  books  just  mentioned, 
in  Miss  Harriet  Monroe's  introduction  to  the  former  and  in 
the  poet's  explanation  of  Poem  Games  in  the  latter.  They 
are  briefly  stated  and  should  be  read  by  every  student  of  his 
work.  Like  most  of  the  developments  in  modern  poetry  they 
are  very  new  only  in  being  a  revival  of  something  very  old, 
but  in  their  application  they  are  local,  and  they  partake  of 
their  author's  genial,  informal,  democratic  nature  in  being  very 
American.  Among  the  contemporary  poets  who  are  likely  to 
leave  an  individual  impress  on  American  literature,  Mr.  Lindsay, 
to  use  a  good  Americanism,  is  one  of  the  few  who  "  will 
certainly  bear  watching." 

Miss  Amy  Lowell  (1874-  )  was  born  in  Brookline, 
Massachusetts.  James  Russell  Lowell  was  a  cousin  of  her 
grandfather,  and  she  numbers  among  her  relatives  her  mother's 
father,  Abbott  Lawrence,  minister  to  England,  and  a  brother, 
Abbott  Lawrence  Lowell,  president  of  Harvard.  In  her 
education  general  reading  and  wide  travel  were  the  most 
important  factors.  In  1902,  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  she 
decided  to  devote  herself  to  poetry,  and  for  the  next  eight 
years  she  studied  and  wrote  without  attempting  publication. 
Her  first  verse  was  printed  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  in  1910, 
and  her  first  volume,  "A  Dome  of  Many-Colored  Glass,"  was 
published  in  1912.  Her  further  volumes  have  been  "Sword 
Blades  and  Poppy  Seed  "  (1914),  "  Six  French  Poets  "  (1915), 
"  Men,  Women  and  Ghosts  "  (1916),  "Tendencies  in  Modern 
American  Poetry  "  (1917),  and  "  Can  Grande's  Castle  "  (1919), 
—  in  all,  four  volumes  of  verse  and  two  of  prose  criticism. 
She  has  been  a  conspicuous  personality  among  contemporary 
poets  in  France,  England,  and  America,  and  though  she  has 


THE  LATER  POETRY  479 

not  been  lacking  in  self-assertiveness  she  has  been  without 
question  chiefly  interested  in  the  progress  of  contemporary 
poetry  and  finely  generous  in  both  theory  and  practice  in  the 
support  of  her  fellow-poets. 

As  one  of  her  most  recent  critics  has  pointed  out,  she  has 
been  notable  and  notably  American  in  her  zest  for  argument 
and  in  her  love  of  experiment — "a  female  Roosevelt  among 
the  Parnassians."  She  has  championed  the  cause  of  modern 
poetry  and  has  fought  the  conventions  of  Victorian  verse 
wherever  she  has  encountered  them,  and  in  her  liking  for 
experiment  and  her  absorption  in  technique  she  has  taken 
up  the  cudgels  successively  for  free  verse,  for  the  tenets  of 
Imagism,  and  for  polyphonic  prose.  She  has  been  most 
closely  identified  with  the  activities  of  the  Imagist  poets,  — 
three  Englishmen,  two  Anglicized  Americans,  and  herself, — 
and  it  is  therefore  well  to  summarize  the  six  objects  to  which 
they  committed  themselves  :  (i)  to  use  the  language  of  common 
speech,  but  to  employ  always  the  exact  word,  (2)  to  create  new 
rhythms  as  the  expression  of  new  moods,  (3)  to  allow  absolute 
freedom  in  the  choice  of  subject  (within  the  limits  of  good 
taste),  (4)  to  present  an  image  (hence  the  name  "  Imagist "), 
(5)  to  produce  poetry  that  is  hard  and  clear,  (6)  to  insist  on 
concentration  as  the  essence  of  poetry.  A  stanza  from  "  Before 
the  Altar,"  the  opening  poem  in  her  first  book,  serves  to 
illustrate  her  technique  as  an  Imagist: 

His  sole  condition 

Love  and  poverty. 

And  while  the  moon 

Swings  slow  across  the  sky, 

Athwart  a  waving  pine  tree, 

And  soon 

Tips  all  the  needles  there 

With  silver  sparkles,  bitterly 

He  gazes,  while  his  soul 

Grows  hard  with  thinking  of  the  poorness  of  his  dole. 


480        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  fourth  section  of  "  Spring  Day,"  the  poem  in  "Men, 
Women  and  Ghosts  "  which  begins  with  the  much-discussed 
"  Bath,"  is  an  example  of  her  "  polyphonic  prose  "  : 

MIDDAY  AND  AFTERNOON 

SWIRL  of  crowded  streets.  Shock  and  recoil  of  traffic.  The  stock- 
still  brick  facade  of  an  old  church,  against  which  the  waves  of  people 
lurch  and  withdraw.  Flare  of  sunshine  down  side-streets.  Eddies  of 
light  in  the  windows  of  chemists'  shops,  with  their  blue,  gold,  purple 
jars,  darting  colors  far  into  the  crowd.  Loud  bangs  and  tremors, 
murmurings  out  of  high  windows,  whirring  of  machine  belts,  blurring 
of  horses  and  motors.  A  quick  spin  and  shudder  of  brakes  on  an 
electric  car,  and  the  jar  of  a  church-bell  knocking  against  the  metal 
blue  of  the  sky.  I  am  a  piece  of  the  town,  a  bit  of  blown  dust,  thrust 
along  with  the  crowd.  Proud  to  feel  the  pavement  under  me,  reeling 
with  feet.  Feet  tripping,  skipping,  lagging,  dragging,  plodding 
doggedly  or  springing  up  and  advancing  on  firm,  elastic  insteps.  A 
boy  is  selling  papers,  I  smell  them  clean  and  new  from  the  press. 
They  are  fresh  like  the  air,  and  pungent  as  tulips  and  narcissus. 

The  blue  sky  pales  to  lemon,  and  great  tongues  of  gold  blind  the 
shop- windows,  putting  out  their  contents  in  a  flood  of  flame. 

In  her  essay  on  John  Gould  Fletcher,  in  "  Tendencies  in 
Modern  American  Poetry,"  Miss  Lowell  has  defined  the 
aesthetic  intent  of  this  poetic  form  :  \  Polyphonic '  means  — 
many-voiced  —  and  the  form  is  so-callecT because  it  makes  use 
of  all  the  '  voices '  of  poetry,  namely ;  metre,  vers  libre,  asso 
nance,  alliteration,  rhyme  and  return^  It  employs  every  form 
of  rhythm,  even  prose  rhythm  at  times,  but  usually  holds  no 
particular  one  for  long.  .  .  .  The  rhymes  may  come  at  the 
ends  of  the  cadences,  or  may  appear  in  close  juxtaposition  to 
each  other,  or  may  be  only  distantly  related."  These  two 
forms,  with  the  aid  of  the  two  formulas,  may  be  tested  at 
leisure  from  an  abundance  of  passages  ;  they  correspond  with 
their  recipes,  are  distinct  from  each  other,  and  have  certain 
distinctive  beauties.  But  a  further  experiment  —  the  attempt 
to  make  the  cadences  of  free  verse  harmonize  with  the  move 
ments  of  natural  objects  —  is  by  no  means  so  successful.  "  If 


THE  LATER  POETRY  481 

the  reader  will  turn,"  says  Miss  Lowell,  in  the  preface  to 
"Men,  Women  and  Ghosts,"  "to  the  poem  'A  Roxbury 
Garden,'  he  will  find  in  the  first  two  sections  an  attempt  to 
give  the  circular  movement  of  a  hoop  bowling  along  the 
ground,  and  the  up-and-down,  elliptical  curve  of  a  flying 
shuttlecock."  The  following,  presumably,  is  a  segment  of  the 
circular  movement: 

"  I  will  beat  you  Minna,"  cries  Stella, 
Hitting  her  hoop  smartly  with  her  stick. 
"  Stella,  Stella,  we  are  winning,"  calls  Minna, 
As  her  hoop  curves  round  a  bed  of  clove-pinks. 

It  is  an  example,  in  fact,  of  the  fruitlessness  of  dwelling  on  a 
matter  of  artistic  form  till  it  becomes  more  important  than  the 
artistic  content.  Miss  Lowell  admits  in  this  connection  that 
there  flashed  into  her  mind  "  the  idea  of  using  the  movement 
of  poetry."  The  student,  therefore,  should  not  regard  the 
resultant  verses  as  anything  more  than  experiments  in  tech 
nique,  and  at  the  same  time  he  should  speculate  as  to  whether 
a  vital  artistic  form  can  ever  be  imposed  upon  a  subject 
instead  of  springing  spontaneously  from  it. 

Yet,  although  Miss  Lowell's  reputation  rests  mainly  on  her 
experiments  in  novel  and  striking  poetic  forms,  most  of 
her  work  has  been  written  in  conformity  with  classic  traditions. 
The  opening  volume  is  all  in  common  rhythms,  and  so  is  most 
of  the  second,  and  quite  half  of  the  third.  The  last  alone  is 
devoted  to  a  new  form ;  "  Can  Grande's  Castle  "  contains  four 
long  poems  in  polyphonic  prose.  The  tendency  is  clearly  in 
the  direction  of  the  innovations,  but  thus  far  the  balance 
is  about  even  between  the  new  and  the  old. 

As  to  subject  matter,  Miss  Lowell's  thesis  is  Poe's :  that 
poetry  should  not  teach  either  facts  or  morals,  but  should  be 
dedicated  to  beauty ;  it  is  a  stained-glass  window,  a  colored 
transparency.  And  the  poet  is  a  nonsocial  being  who 

spurns  life's  human  friendships  to  profess 
Life's  loneliness  of  dreaming  ecstacy. 


482        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Like  Poe  she  limits  herself  to  the  production  of  lyrics  and 
tales  and  resorts  not  infrequently  to  grotesques  and  arabesques. 
Unlike  Poe  her  resort  to  horror  leads  her  to  the  composition 
of  sex  infidelities  which  are  sometimes  boring,  sometimes  foul, 
and  rarely  interesting.  On  this  point  (rule  three  for  the 
Imagists)  Miss  Lowell  falters  awkwardly.  '  How  can  the 
choice  of  subject  be  absolutely  unrestricted  ? '  —  horrified  critics 
have  asked.  The  only  reply  to  such  a  question  is  that  one 
had  supposed  one  were  speaking  to  people  of  common  sense 
and  intelligence."  The  bounds  of  taste  are  assumed ;  yet 
these,  she  hastens  to  state,  differ  for  different  judges,  and  she 
illustrates  her  contention  by  the  extreme  extensiveness  of  her 
own.  Finally,  and  again  like  Poe,  Miss  Lowell  is  to  a  high  de 
gree  bookishly  literary  in  her  choice  and  treatment  of  subjects. 

After  all,  for  the  attentive  reader  of  contemporary  poetry 
Miss  Lowell's  most  distinguished  service  has  been  in  her  two 
books  of  criticism.  In  the  concourse  of  present-day  poets  she 
is  a  kind  of  drum  major.  One  cannot  see  the  procession 
without  seeing  her  or  admiring  the  skill  with  which  she 
swings  and  tosses  the  baton.  But  when  the  parade  is  past,  one 
can  easily  forget  her  until  the  trumpets  blare  again.  She  leads 
the  way  effectively,  and  one  is  glad  to  have  her  do  it,  —  glad 
that  there  are  those  who  enjoy  being  excellent  drum  majors. 
Then  one  pays  farewell  to  her  in  the  words  with  which  she 
salutes  Ezra  Pound  in  her  verses  headed  "  Astigmatism "  : 
"  Peace  be  with  you,  [Sister],  You  have  chosen  your  part." 

Witter  Bynner  (1881-  )  was  born  in  Brooklyn  and  is 
a  graduate  of  Harvard  in  the  class  of  1902.  He  took  the 
impress  of  his  university  and  recorded  it  not  only  in  an  "  Ode 
to  Harvard"  (1907)  —  reprinted  in  "Young  Harvard  and 
Other  Poems"  -but  also  in  the  two  plays  that  followed, 
"Tiger"  (1913)  and  "The  Little  King"  (1914),  neither  of 
which  have  anything  to  do  with  Harvard,  but  both  of  which 
reflect  the  intelligent  interest  in  drama  encouraged  at  that  seat 
of  learning.  Aside  from  "  Iphigenia  in  Tauris  "  (1915),  his 


THE  LATER  POETRY  483 

remaining  work,  in  which  his  real  distinction  lies,  is  the  single 
poem  "The  New  World"  (1915)  and  the  collection  "  Gren- 
stone  Poems"  (1917).  Into  both  of  these  are  woven  threads 
of  the  same  story,  —  the  poet's  love  and  marriage  to  Celia, 
the  inspiration  which  comes  to  him  from  her  finer  nature,  the 
birth  and  loss  of  their  child,  the  death  of  Celia,  his  dull 
bereavement,  the  dedication  of  his  life  to  the  democracy  which 
Celia  had  taught  him  to  understand. 

"  Grenstone  Poems  "  is  a  series  of  little  idyls  comparable  in 
some  respects  to  Frost's  "A  Boy's  Will."  They  are  wholly  in 
dividual  in  tone,  presenting  in  brief  lyrics,  nearly  two  hundred 
in  number,  the  quaint  and  lovely  elements  in  the  humor  and 
the  tragedy  of  life.  "  The  New  World,"  in  contrast,  contains 
by  implication  much  of  this,  but  is  constructed  in  nine  sections 
which  trace  the  progressive  steps  in  the  poet's  idealization  of 
America.  Always  Celia's  imagination  leads  far  in  advance  of 
his  own.  Again  and  again  as  he  strives  to  follow,  his  triumphant 
ascent  reaches  as  its  climax  what  to  her  is  a  lower  round  in  the 
ladder.  Two  passages  suggest  the  theme  in  the  abstract,  though 
the  beauty  of  the  poem  lies  chiefly  in  the  far  implications  of 
definite  scenes  and  episodes.  The  first  is  a  speech  of  Celia's : 

It  is  my  faith  that  God  is  our  own  dream 

Of  perfect  understanding  of  the  soul. 

It  is  my  passion  that,  alike  through  me 

And  every  member  of  eternity, 

The  source  of  God  is  sending  the  same  stream. 

It  is  my  peace  that  when  my  life  is  whole, 

God's  life  shall  be  completed  and  supreme. 

The  second,  with  which  this  volume  may  well  conclude,  is  in 
the  poet's  own  words  : 

In  temporary  pain 
The  age  is  bearing  a  new  breed 
Of  men  and  women,  patriots  of  the  world 
And  one  another.    Boundaries  in  vain, 
Birthrights  and  countries,  would  constrain 


484        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

The  old  diversity  of  seed 
To  be  diversity  of  soul. 

O  mighty  patriots,  maintain 
Your  loyalty !  —  till  flags  unfurled 
For  battle  shall  arraign 
The  traitors  who  unfurled  them,  shall  remain 
And  shine  over  an  army  with  no  slain, 
And  men  from  every  nation  shall  enroll 
And  women  —  in  the  hardihood  of  peace ! 

What  can  my  anger  do  but  cease  ? 
Whom  shall  I  fight  and  who  shall  be  my  enemy 
When  he  is  I  and  I  am  he  ? 

Let  me  have  done  with  that  old  God  outside 
Who  watched  with  preference  and  answered  prayer, 
The  Godhead  that  replied 
Now  here,  now  there, 
Where  heavy  cannon  were 
Or  coins  of  gold  ! 

Let  me  receive  communion  with  all  men, 
Acknowledging  our  one  and  only  soul ! 

For  not  till  then 
Can  God  be  God,  till  we  ourselves  are  whole. 

Genral  Reftrences  BOOKLIST 

The  Younger  American  Poets.   Jessie  B.  Rittenhouse,  1904. 

Tendencies  in  Modern  American  Poetry.    Amy  Lowell,  1917. 

The  Advance  of  English  Poetry  in  the  Twentieth  Century.   W.  L.  Phelps 

1918.   (Latter  half,  American  Poetry.) 
Convention  and  Revolt  in  Poetry.    G.  L.  Lowes,  1919. 
The  New  Era  in  American  Poetry.    L.  Untermeyer,  1919. 

Collections 

A  Little  Book  of  Modern  Verse.   Edited  by  Jessie  B.  Rittenhouse. 
Some  Imagist  Poets  (three  annual  volumes  in  a  completed  series) 

1915.  !9i6,  1917. 
An  Anthology  of  Magazine  Verse  (annual  volumes  in  a  continuing 

series).    Edited  by  W.  S.  Braithwaite,  since  1915. 
The  Poetry  of  the  Future.    Edited  by  W.  T.  Schnittkin. 
A  Book  of  Princeton  Verse.    Edited  by  Alfred  Noyes  and  Others. 


THE  LATER  POETRY  485 

Works  of  Individual  Men 

WITTER  BYNNER.  Ode  to  Harvard,  1907;  Tiger,  1913;  The  Little 
King,  1914;  Iphigenia  in  Tauris,  1915;  The  New  World,  1915; 
Grenstone  Poems,  1917;  Any  Girl,  1917. 

ROBERT  FROST.  A  Boy's  Will,  1913;  North  of  Boston,  1914;  Moun 
tain  Interval,  1916. 

RICHARD  HOVEY.    Plays  (uniform  edition),  1907-1908. 

NICHOLAS  VACHEL  LINDSAY.  General  William  Booth  Enters  into 
Heaven,  1913;  Adventures  while  Preaching  the  Gospel  of  Beauty, 
1914;  The  Congo,  1914;  The  Art  of  the  Moving  Picture,  1915; 
A  Handy  Guide  for  Beggars,  1916;  The  Chinese  Nightingale,  1917. 

AMY  LOWELL.  A  Dome  of  Many-Colored  Glass,  1912;  Sword  Blades 
and  Poppy  Seed,  1914;  Six  French  Poets,  1915  ;  Men,  Women  and 
Ghosts,  1916;  Tendencies  in  Modern  American  Poetry,  1917;  Can 
Grande's  Castle,  1919.  . 

EDGAR  LEE  MASTERS.  Poems,  1898;  Maximilian,  1900;  The  Spoon 
River  Anthology,  1915  ;  Songs  and  Satires,  1916;  The  Great  Valley, 
1916;  Toward  the  Gulf,  1918. 

WILLIAM  VAUGHN  MOODY.    Poems  and  Plays.    1912.    2  vols. 

EDWIN  ARLINGTON  ROBINSON.  The  Children  of  the  Night,  1897; 
Captain  Craig,  1902  and  1915;  The  Town  down  the  River,  1910; 
The  Man  against  the  Sky,  1916;  Prose  plays:  Van  Zorn,  1914; 
The  Porcupine,  1915;  Merlin,  1917. 

Magazine  Articles 

The  magazine  articles   on    poetry  are   extremely  numerous.    From 
among  those  since  1900  the  following  are  of  special  interest: 

1900-1904.    Poetry  and  the  Stage.    H.  W.  Boynton.   Atlantic,  Vol.  XCII 

pp.  120-126.   July,  1903. 
Poetry  of  a  Machine  Age.    G.  S.  Lee.   Atlantic,  Vol.  LXXXV, 

pp.  756-763.   June,  1900. 
1905-1909.    Certain  Vagaries  of  the  Poets.    Atlantic,  Vol.  C,  pp.  431-432. 

September,  1907. 
On  the  Slopes  of  Parnassus.    A.  Repplier.    Atlantic,  Vol.  CII, 

pp.  397-403.    September,  1908. 
Our  Strepitous  Poets.     Nation,    Vol.    LXXXV,    pp.    277-278. 

Sept.  26,  1907. 
Poetry  and  Elocution.  F.  B.  Gummere.   Nation,  Vol.  LXXXIX, 

PP-  453-454-    NOV.  n,  1909. 

State  of  Pseudo-Poetry  at  the  Present  Time.  J.  A.  Macy.   Book 
man,  Vol.  XXVII,  pp.  513-517.   July,  1908. 

1910-1914.  Democracy  and  Poetry.  Nation^C  III,  pp.  413-414.  Nov.  2, 1911. 
New  Poetry.    R.  M.  Alden.    Nation,  Vol.  XCVI,  pp.  386-387. 

April  17,  1913. 


486       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

1910-1914.    New  Poets  and  Old  Poetry.    B.  Hooker.    Bookman,  Vol.  XXXI, 

pp.  480-486.   July,  1910. 

Taking  Poetry  too  Seriously.    Nation,  Vol.  XCVI,  pp.  173-174. 
Feb.  20,  1913. 

1915.  Imagism,  Another  View.     W.  S.  Braithwaite.    New  Republic, 

Vol.  Ill,  pp.  154-155.   June  12,  1915. 
Limits  to  Imagism.    C.  Aiken.  New  Republic,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  204- 

205.   June  26,  1915. 
New  Movement  in  Poetry.    O.  W.  Firkins.    Nation,  Vol.  CI, 

pp.  458-461.    Oct.  14,  1915. 
Place  of  Imagism.    C.  Aiken.    New  Republic,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  75- 

76.    May  22,  1915. 

1916.  New  Manner  in  Modern  Poetry.     A.  Lowell.    New  Republic, 

Vol.  VI,  pp.  124-125.    March  4,  1916. 
New  Naivete.   L.  W.  Smith.  Atlantic,  Vol.  CXVII,  pp.  487-492. 

April,  1916. 
Poetry  To-day.   C.  A.  P.  Comer.  Atlantic,  Vol.  CXVII,  pp.  493- 

498.    April,  1916. 
Poetry  under  the  Fire  Test.   J.  N.  Hall.  New  Republic,  Vol.  IX, 

pp.  93-96.    Nov.  25,  1916. 

1917.  From  Florence  Coates  to  Amy  Lowell :  a  Glance  at  Modernity. 

O.  W.  Firkins.   Nation,  Vol.  CIV,  pp.  522-524.    May  3,  1917. 
Poetry,   Education,   and   Slang.     M.  Eastman.     New  Republic, 

Vol.  IX,  pp.  151-152,  182-184.    Dec.  9,  16,  1916. 
Singers  and  Satirists.    O.  W.  Firkins.   Nation,  Vol.  CIV,  pp. 

157-158.    Feb.  8,  1917. 
Critical  Notes  on  American  Poets.    E.  Garnett.   Atlantic,  Vol. 

CXX,  pp.  366-373.    Sept.,  1917. 
See  also  the  periodicals  Poetry,  a  Magazine  of  Verse  (see  p.  497), 

as  well  as  The  Poetry  Journal,  The  Poetry  Review  of  America, 

and  Poet  Lore,  entire. 


1800      1810      1820      1830      1840      1850      1860      1870      1880      1890      1900      1910      1920 

New  York  Evening  Post,  1801- 

The  Portfolio,  1806-1827 

North  American  Review,  1815- 

Saturday  Evening'  Post,  1821- 

New  York  Mirror,  1823-1846 

| 

New  York  Review  and  Athenaeur 
Casket,  1826-1840 

i  Maga 

zine,  1826-182 

Godey's  Lady's  Book,  1830-1898 

New  England  Magazine,  1831-183 
Liberator,  1831-1865 

5 

Baltimore  Saturday  Visiter,  1833- 
Western  Monthly  Magazine,  183^ 
Knickerbocker  Magazine,  1833-1? 

-1836 

65 

Southern  Literary  Messenger,  183 

£jg6j 

Western  Messenger,  1835-1841 

Gentleman's  Magazine,  1837-18^ 

Democratic  Review,  1837-1859 

Dial  (Boston;,  1840-1844 
Graham's  Magazine,  1841-1859 
Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  1841- 
New  York  Tribune,  1841- 
New  Englander,  1843-1892 
LittelPs  Living  Age,  1844- 
Broadway  Journal,  1845 
Home  Journal,  1847- 
Independent,  1848- 
Congregationalist,  1849- 
Harper's  Magazine,  1850- 
Putnam's  Magazine,  1853-1858,   i 
Russell's  Magazine,  1857-1860 
Atlantic  Monthly,  1857- 
Saturday  Press,  1858-1860 
Round  Table,  1864-1869 
Every  Saturday,  1865-1874 
Nation,  1865- 
Galaxy,  1866-1878 
Overland  Monthly,  1868-1875,  1883- 
Lippincott's  Magazine,  1868-1916 
Scribner's  Monthly,  1870-1881 
Outlook,  1870- 
Southern  Magazine,  1871-1875 
American  Magazine,  1875- 
Dial  (Chicago-New  York),  1880- 
Critic,  1881-1906 
Century  Magazine,  1881- 
Scribner's  Magazine,  1886- 
Poet-Lore,  1889- 
Conservator,  1890- 
Yale  Review,  1892- 
McClure's  Magazine,  1893- 
Everybody's  Magazine,  1899- 
Poetry  Magazine,  1912- 
New  Republic,  1914- 

368-  i  8^ 

o,  1906 

-1910  ^ 

! 

CHRONOLOGICAL   CHART  III.     LEADING  PERIODICALS  ESTABLISHED  SINCE 
1800   WHICH   HAVE  SERVED   AS   VEHICLES   FOR  AMERICAN   WRITINGS 


INDEX  TO  LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY 
PERIODICALS 

The  following  list  of  periodicals  represents  a  small  fraction  of  those 
which  were  established  and  throve  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  in 
the  United  States  between  1800  and  the  present  time.  The  basis  of 
selection  has  been  to  include  only  those  which  published  a  generous 
amount  of  literature  which  is  still  remembered  or  those  of  which 
leading  men  of  letters  were  editors. 

It  was  intended  at  first  to  make  the  list  identical  with  the  periodicals 
mentioned  in  the  text,  but  this  proved  not  to  be  practical.  On  some 
of  the  earlier  ones  it  was  not  possible  to  secure  exact  data  concerning 
length  of  life,  editors,  and  contributors.  Some  others  mentioned  in  the 
text  were  not  of  importance  enough  to  justify  inclusion.  Still  others, 
though  not  mentioned  in  the  text,  were  too  important  to  be  omitted. 
The  list  as  it  stands,  therefore,  represents  the  judgment  of  the  author 
and  would  not  coincide  with  that  of  any  other  compiler  of  a  list  of 
equal  length.  It  will  serve,  however,  as  a  fairly  representative  list 
and  will,  perhaps,  move  some  other  student  of  American  literature 
to  what  is  greatly  needed  —  a  relatively  complete  and  compact 
"Who's  Who"  of  American  periodicals. 

As  yet  such  material  is  very  meager  and  unsatisfactory.  The  great 
number  of  magazines  and  the  bewildering  consolidations,  changes  of 
editorship,  title,  form,  period  of  publication,  and  place  of  publication 
have  apparently  discouraged  anyone's  attempting  a  definitive  piece  of 
work.  On  this  account  and  with  this  explanation  the  following  brief 
appendix  has  been  prepared. 

AMERICAN  MAGAZINE,  THE,  1875 .   A  New  York  monthly. 

Founded  in  1875.  From  1884  to  1888  the  Brooklyn  Magazine,  then  resumed 
its  own  name,  continuing  without  important  developments  till  it  entered  on  its 
present  regime  in  1905.  This  came  with  the  absorption  of  Leslie's  and  the  as 
sumption  of  control  by  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  Lincoln  Steffens,  and  Ida  Tarbell, 
all  former  staff  writers  for  McClure's.  In  this  latter  period  it  has  been  specially 

487 


488        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

successful  in  recognizing  younger  authors.  It  has  printed  much  by  Bynner, 
O.  Henry,  Lindsay,  Whitlock,  and  Poole ;  by  Eaton  and  Hamilton  on  the 
drama;  by  F.  P.  Dunne  ("Mr.  Dooley"),  George  Ade,  and  Irvin  Cobb ;  and, 
among  foreign  authors,  by  Wells,  Bennett,  Kipling,  and  Locke.  It  is  popular 
in  policy  and  content. 

ATLANTIC  MONTHLY,  THE,  1857 .   A  Boston  monthly. 

Founded  in  1857,  Francis  H. 'Underwood  the  prime  mover,  with  the  inten 
tion  of  setting  new  standards  for  a  literary  magazine  of  American  authorship. 
Lowell  was  first  editor ;  the  first  notable  essay  series  Holmes's  "  Autocrat  of 
the  Breakfast  Table  " ;  the  first  popular  serial  story,  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Dred." 
The  field  has  been  consistently  divided  among  fiction,  essay,  and  poetry,  and 
the  book  reviewing  has  always  been  scrupulous.  The  editors  have  been 
Lowell,  James  T.  Fields,  W.  D.  Howells,  T.  B.  Aldrich,  Horace  Scudder, 
W.  H.  Page,  Bliss  Perry,  and  the  present  editor  and  chief  owner,  Ellery 
Sedgwick.  Early  important  contributors  were  Emerson,  Holmes,  Longfellow, 
Lowell,  Thoreau,  Whittier,  Hawthorne,  Wendell  Phillips.  Later  issues  have 
included  Lafcadio  Hearn,  Edith  Wharton,  Frank  Norris,  Agnes  Repplier, 
Gerald  Stanley  Lee,  S.  M.  Crothers,  William  Vaughn  Moody,  Richard  Hovey, 
and  most  of  the  contributors  to  the  best  traditions  in  American  literature. 
(See  "  The  Atlantic  Monthly  and  its  Makers,"  by  M.  A.  De  Wolfe  Howe.) 

BALTIMORE  SATURDAY  VISITER,  1833 (?).   A  Baltimore  weekly. 

Started  by  Lambert  A.  Wilmer,  who  continued  with  it  for  only  six  months. 
In  October  of  this  year  Poe's  "  MS.  Found  in  a  Bottle"  was  published  as  the 
winner  of  a  prize  competition.  This  was  Poe's  one  contribution  and  the  Visiter's 
sole  apparent  title  to  fame. 

BROADWAY  JOURNAL,  1845.   A  New  York  weekly. 

Founded  by  C.  F.  Briggs  ("  Harry  Franco")  in  January,  1845.  So  named 
according  to  the  first  editorial  from  "  the  first  street  in  the  first  city  of  the 
New  World.  .  .  .  We  shall  attempt  to  make  it  entirely  original,  and  instead  of 
the  effete  vapors  of  English  magazines  .  .  .  give  such  thoughts  as  may  be  gen 
erated  among  us."  Poe  and  Briggs  were  associate  editors  in  the  spring,  until 
in  July,  1845,  it  went  under  the  sole  charge  of  Poe,  who  bought  it  from  Briggs 
for  $50.  During  this  year  it  was  Poe's  chief  vehicle,  printing  or  reprinting 
some  fifteen  of  his  prose  tales  and  two  poems.  Its  business  failure  took  place 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year.  (See  "  Life  of  Poe,"  by  George  E.  Woodberry.) 

BROOKLYN  DAILY  EAGLE,  1841.   A  Brooklyn  daily. 

Isaac  Van  Anden,  first  editor  and  publisher.  A  democratic  newspaper  with 
independent  judgment.  From  1844  (?)  to  1848  Walt  Whitman  was  its  editor. 
From  1885,  until  his  recent  death,  it  was  under  charge  of  St.  Clair  McKelway, 
a  brilliant  writer  and  speaker  and  a  constructive  educator. 

BURTON'S  GENTLEMAN'S  MAGAZINE  (see  Gentleman's  Magazine}. 


LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS     489 

CASKET,  'I HE.  (Graham's  Magazine),  1826-1840.  A  Philadelphia  monthly. 
Called   Atkinson's    Casket,    1831-1840.    Was    combined   with    Gentleman's 
Magazine  and  became  Graham's  Magazine. 

CENTURY  MAGAZINE,  THE,  1881 .   A  New  York  monthly. 

A  continuation  of  the  older  Scribner's  Monthly  ( 1870-1881 )  on  the  assumption 
of  control  by  Roswell  Smith.  R.  W.  Gilder  was  editor  from  the  second  number, 
till  his  death  in  1907.  Its  policy  was  to  publish  articles,  singly  and  in  series, 
related  to  broad  aspects  of  American  life,  exposition  and  poetry  playing  a  larger 
part  in  the  earlier  years  than  of  late.  In  travel  it  published  Lowell's  "  Impres 
sions  of  Spain  "  and  van  Dyke's  "  Sicily " ;  in  biography  later  portions  of 
Hay  and  Nicolay's  "Lincoln,"  Jefferson's  autobiography, and  a  Napoleon  series. 
Riis,  Bryce,  Darwin,  Tolstoy,  and  Burroughs  have  contributed  from  their  own 
fields.  Notable  fiction  series  have  been  contributed  by  Howells,  Mark  Twain, 
Crawford,  Weir  Mitchell,  Garland,  London,  and  Mrs.  Wharton ;  and  verse  by 
Emerson,  Whitman,  Gilder,  Moody,  Markham,  and  Cawein.  (See  also  Scribner's 
Monthly,  p.  499.) 

CONGREGATIONALIST  AND  CHRISTIAN  WORLD,  THE,  1849 .  A  Boston 

weekly. 

Founded  in  1816  as  the  Boston  Recorder  by  Nathaniel  Willis,  father  of  the 
more  famous  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis,  and  conducted  by  him  until  1844.  From 
then  till  about  1890  it  was  the  sectarian  organ  of  the  Congregationalists,  play 
ing  a  role  similar  to  that  of  the  Independent  and  the  Christian  Union.  In  the 
latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  under  the  editorship  of  W.  A.  Dun 
ning,  who  was  succeeded  by  the  present  editor,  Horace  Bridgman.  It  has  had 
a  consistent  career  as  a  religious  weekly,  changing  with  the  times,  but  not  modi 
fying  itself  for  the  sake  of  a  secular  circulation  so  frankly  as  the  other  two 
have  done. 

CONSERVATOR,  THE,  1890.   A  Philadelphia  monthly. 

Founded  in  1890  by  Horace  Traubel,  an  independent  exponent  of  the  world 
movement  in  ethics.  In  1892  W.  H.  Ketler,  Joseph  Gilbert,  W.  Thornton 
Innes,  and  James  A.  Brown  added  to  the  editorial  staff  and  enlarged  to  con 
tain  articles  of  timely  interest,  a  book-review  section,  and  a  "  Budget  "  for  the 
reports  of  the  ethical  societies.  The  chief  contributors :  Stanton  Coit,  Wil 
liam  Salter,  Robert  Ingersoll,  and  M.  M.  Mangasarian.  The  magazine  gradu 
ally  dropped  its  study  of  ethical  questions  and  became  an  exponent  of  "  the 
Whitman  argument,"  treated  by  Bucke,  Harned,  Kennedy,  Platt,  and  Helena 
Born.  In  1890  Traubel  added  extensive  dramatic  criticism  and  enlarged  the 
book-review  department.  Since  1898  the  magazine  has  been  an  expression  of 
Traubel's  radical  theories.  It  contains  a  long  editorial  "  Collect,"  which  is  an 
uncompromising  criticism  of  the  times,  a  long  poem  by  Traubel,  and  reviews 
of  current  books  of  socialistic  tendencies.  During  the  Great  War  it  was 
frankly  pacific,  before  the  entrance  of  the  United  States. 


490        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

CRITIC,  THE,  1881-1906.    A  New  York  bi-weekly  (1881-1882),  weekly 
(1883-1898),  and  monthly. 

Founded  as  a  "  fortnightly  review  of  literature,  the  fine  arts,  music,  and  the 
drama."  The  best  known  of  its  editors  were  the  latest — J.  L.  and  J.  B.  Gilder. 
After  the  first  four  years  art  and  music  notes  were  dropped  and  book  reviews 
were  made  the  leading  feature,  original  essays  giving  place  to  extracts  from 
other  magazines.  In  1900  the  design  was  stated  to  be  "an  illustrated  monthly 
review  of  literature,  art,  and  life."  From  1905  politics  and  technical  science 
were  dropped.  In  1906  it  was  absorbed  by  Putnam's.  Best-known  contributors  : 

E.  C.  Stedman,  Edith  M.  Thomas,  R.  W.  Gilder,  John  Burroughs,  E.  E.  Hale, 

F.  B.  Sanborn,  J.  C.  Harris,  Brander  Matthews. 

DEMOCRATIC  REVIEW,  THE  UNITED  STATES,  1837-1859  (?).  A  Washing 
ton  and  New  York  quarterly. 

A  note  in  Vol.  XXXVIII  stated  that  with  Vol.  XXXIX  it  would  be  issued 
as  a  newspaper.  At  the  outset  it  was  the  most  successful  political  magazine  in 
the  country.  It  was  characterized  by  Carlyle  as  "The  Dial  with  a  beard."  It 
was  at  first  partisan,  until,  with  payment  for  its  articles,  it  became  broader. 
Early  contributors  and  best  known  were  Orestes  Augustus  Brownson,  Bancroft, 
Whittier,  Bryant,  and  Hawthorne. 

DIAL,  THE,  1840-1844.   A  Boston  quarterly. 

Founded  as  a  quarterly  organ  for  the  group  of  Transcendentalists  centering 
about  Emerson.  Editors:  1840-1842,  Margaret  Fuller;  1842-1844,  Emerson. 
The  issues  of  128  pages  contained  philosophical  essays,  discussions  of  German 
and  oriental  thought,  comments  on  contemporary  art  and  literature,  book 
reviews,  and  poetry.  The  circulation  never  reached  300  copies,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  fourth  year  it  was  discontinued,  the  final  debts  being  paid  by  Emer 
son.  Leading  contributors  were  the  editors :  Thoreau,  Bronson  Alcott,  Theodore 
Parker,  George  Ripley,  C.  P.  C  ranch,  J.  F.  Clarke,  and  Ellery  Channing.  There 
was  a  reprint  by  the  Rowfant  Club,  Cleveland,  in  1901-1902,  with  the  addition 
of  a  historical  and  biographical  introduction.  (See  introduction  to  the  reprint 
of  The  Zta/,  Vol.  II,  George  Willis  Cooke,  1902.) 

DIAL,  THE,  1881 .  A  Chicago  (1881-1918)  and  New  York  fortnightly. 

Founded  and  edited  for  a  third  of  a  century  by  Francis  F.  Browne  as  a 
literary  review,  and  able  to  refer  to  itself  on  its  thirtieth  birthday  as  "  the  only 
journal  in  America  given  up  to  the  criticism  of  current  literature"  and  "the 
only  literary  periodical  in  the  country  not  owned  or  controlled  by  a  book  pub 
lishing  house  or  a  newspaper."  After  one  or  two  changes  of  control,  following 
the  death  of  its  founder,  The  Dial  was  transferred  to  New  York  in  July,  1918, 
extending  its  editorial  policy  to  include,  besides  the  literary  features,  discussions 
of  internationalism  and  of  industrial  and  educational  reconstruction. 


LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS     491 

EVERYBODY'S  MAGAZINE,  1899 .   A  New  York  monthly. 

Founded  by  John  Wanamaker  and  for  the  first  four  years  a  miscellany  best 
characterized  by  the  purchasers  in  1903.  The  Ridgway-Thayer  Company  on 
taking  control  announced  their  purpose  to  do  away  with  the  "  mawkish,  morbid, 
and  unreal,"  to  repress  questionable  advertising,  and  in  general  to  transform 
the  magazine.  Since  then  Everybody's  has  attempted  in  content  to  satisfy  all 
sorts  of  intellectual  tastes  and  at  the  same  time  to  have  a  hand  in  the  social 
and  economic  investigation  of  the  period..  The  most  celebrated  series,  which 
multiplied  the  circulation,  was  Thomas  W.  Lawson's  "  Frenzied  Finance." 
Literary  contributors  in  recent  years  have  included  Mary  E.  Wilkins  Freeman, 
O.  Henry,  Frank  Norris,  Booth  Tarkington,  Ernest  Poole,  Dorothy  Canfield, 
and  in  poetry  Margaret  Widdemer,  Witter  Bynner,  and  others. 

EVERY  SATURDAY,  1865-1874.   A  Boston  weekly. 

A  Ticknor  and  Field  publication;  one  of  the  numerous  "eclectic"  mid- 
century  periodicals  made  up  of  selected  materials  chiefly  from  English  maga 
zines.  It  is  of  interest  partly  as  a  type  and  partly  because  Thomas  Bailey 
Aldrich  was  editor  for  the  nine  years  of  its  life.  In  1874  it  was  merged  with 
LittelFs  Living  Age  (see  p.  493). 

GALAXY,  THE,  1866-1878.   A  New  York  monthly. 

"An  illustrated  magazine  of  entertaining  reading."  The  first  volume  illus 
trated  the  practice  of  the  day  in  featuring  English  authors  with  a  leading  serial 
by  Anthony  Trollope.  The  American  contributors  include  Bayard  Taylor, 
Howells,  Stedman,  and  William  Winter.  Later  Charles  Reade  was  accompanied 
by  Henry  James,  John  Burroughs,  E.  R.  Sill,  and  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne.  With 
contributors  of  this  substantial  secondary  rank,  later  still  supplemented  by  Sidney 
Lanier  and  Joaquin  Miller,  the  Galaxy  completed  and  died  with  its  twelfth  year. 

GENTLEMAN'S  MAGAZINE,  Burton's  (1837-1841).   A  Philadelphia  monthly. 

Founded  by  William  E.  Burton,  the  actor.  Poe  was  an  early,  important 
contributor  and  in  the  second  year  the  editor.  Although  he  and  Burton  sepa 
rated  in  1839,  the  proprietor  saw  to  it  that  Poe  was  reemployed  when  in  1841 
George  R.  Graham  bought  out  its  circulation  of  3500  and  merged  it  with 
Atkinson's  Casket  as  Graham's  Magazine. 

GODEY'S  LADY'S  BOOK,  1830-1898.   A  Philadelphia  monthly. 

Founded  by  Louis  A.  Godey,  July,  1830,  and  managed  by  him  as  a  monthly 
until  1877.  In  1837  it  absorbed  the  Boston  Lady's  Magazine  and  took  over  its 
editor,  Sarah  J.  Hale.  Its  chief  distinction  and  highest  circulation  (150,000) 
came  under  its  first  manager.  It  printed  much  early  work  of  Longfellow, 
Holmes,  Poe,  Bayard  Taylor,  Mrs.  Sigourney,  and  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe. 
In  its  last  years  it  was  renamed  Godey 's  Magazine.  In  1898  it  was  absorbed  by 
the  Puritan. 


492        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

GRAHAM'S  MAGAZINE,  1841-1859.   A  Philadelphia  monthly. 

Founded  by  George  R.  Graham  by  combining  his  Atkinson's  Casket  with  his 
purchase  of  Burton's  Gentleman's  Magazine.  Within  a  year,  largely  through 
Poe's  editorial  work,  the  circulation  rose  from  5000  to  30,000.  By  1850  it  had 
reached  a  circulation  of  i  35,000.  Among  the  later  editors  were  R.  W.  Gris- 
wold,  Bayard  Taylor,  and  Charles  Godfrey  Leland,  and  among  the  contributors, 
Cooper,  Longfellow,  Poe,  Hawthorne,  Lowell,  N.  P.  Willis,  E.  P.  Whipple, 
the  Gary  sisters,  William  Gilmore  Simms,  Richard  Penn  Smith,  and  Thomas 
Dunn  English.  In  January,  1859,  Graham's  became  the  American  Monthly 
(see  "Philadelphia  Magazines  and  their  Contributors,"  A.  H.  Smyth,  1892,  and 
the  Critic,  Vol.  XXV,  p.  44). 

HARPER'S  NEW  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE,  1850 .   A  New  York  monthly. 

Founded  by  Harper  Brothers  in  order  "  to  place  within  the  reach  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  American  people  the  unbounded  treasures  of  the  periodical 
literature  of  the  present  day  ";  thus  it  was  an  "  eclectic  "  magazine,  and  in  the 
early  years  it  supplemented  this  borrowed  magazine  material  with  serials  by 
the  most  popular  English  novelists.  Within  four  years  it  had  a  circulation  of 
125,000.  During  the  i86o's  it  became  more  American  in  content,  and  in  the 
1870'$  it  included  a  notable  series  on  the  transformed  South.  In  the  last  thirty 
years  it  has  drawn  on  the  best-known  American  authors  for  single  articles  and 
serials :  Aldrich,  Howells,  Lowell,  Wister,  Mrs.  Deland,  Mark  Twain,  James, 
Harte,  Mrs.  Wharton,  Tarkington,  Allen ;  and  it  has  shared  in  the  publication 
of  recent  significant  poetry  by  Cawein,  Le  Gallienne,  Untermeyer,  Bynner,  and 
the  Misses  Thomas,  Teasdale,  Widdemer,  and  Lowell.  (See  "The  House  of 
Harper,"  J.  H.  Harper,  1912,  and  "The  Making  of  a  Great  Magazine," 
Harper  &  Brothers,  1889.) 

HOME  JOURNAL,  THE,  1 847 .   A  New  York  monthly. 

Jointly  founded  and  conducted  by  George  P.  Morris  and  N.  P.  Willis  as  a 
continuation  of  their  National  Press  (founded  1845).  Both  remained  with  it 
till  death  —  Willis,  the  survivor,  till  1865.  "  It  was  and  is,"  wrote  H.  A.  Beers 
in  his  Life  of  N.  P.  Willis  (1885),  " tne  organ  of  '  japonicadom,"  the  journal  of 
society,  and  gazette  of  fashionable  literature,  addressing  itself  with  assiduous 
gallantry  to  '  the  ladies.'  " 

INDEPENDENT,  THE,  1848 .    A  New  York  weekly. 

A  periodical  "  Conducted  by  Pastors  of  Congregational  Churches  " ;  Leonard 
Bacon,  the  first  editor ;  Reverend  George  B.  Cheever  and  Reverend  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  contributing  editors.  Its  purpose  was  to  be  a  progressive  religious 
journal,  particularly  for  Congregationalists,  who  protested  against  conserva 
tism  in  theology  and  proslavery  politics.  Eventually  it  became  an  open  forum 
for  the  liberally  minded  of  all  sects,  being  carefully  nonpartisan  in  politics. 
From  1870  to  1890  it  printed  good  verse,  notably  poems  by  Joaquin  Miller 


LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS     493 

and  Sidney  Lanier.  The  religious  and  political  viewpoints  broadened  out  from 
1873.  By  1898  an  evident  attempt  was  made  to  popularize  the  magazine.  Since 
1914  it  has  absorbed  the  Chautauquan,  the  Countryside,  and  Harper's  Weekly. 

KNICKERBOCKER  MAGAZINE,  THE,  1833-1865.   A  New  York  monthly. 

The  first  editor  was  Charles  Fenno  Hoffman.  From  1839  to  1841  Irving 
wrote  monthly  articles  for  a  salary  of  $2000.  Bryant,  Whittier,  Longfellow, 
Holmes,  Halleck,  and  most  of  the  secondary  writers  contributed.  The  second 
editor,  from  1841  to  1861,  was  Lewis  Gaylord  Clark.  In  its  later  years  the 
magazine  declined,  chiefly  because  it  was  carrying  the  tradition  of  polite  and 
aimless  literature  into  Civil-War  times.  During  its  period  it  stood  in  the  North 
for  the  same  interests  that  its  contemporary,  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger, 
did  in  the  South  (see  "The  Knickerbocker  Gallery,"  1855,  and  Harper's 
Magazine,  Vol.  XLVIII,  p.  587). 

LIBERATOR,  THE,  1831-1865.   A  Boston  weekly. 

The  most  famous  and  effective  abolition  journal,  founded  and  edited 
throughout  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison.  It  was  proscribed  in  the  South  and 
denounced  in  the  North.  Wendell  Phillips  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher  praised 
it,  but  Mrs.  Stowe  criticized  and  Horace  Greeley  misrepresented  it.  The 
financial  straits  it  passed  through  were  augmented  by  the  rivalry  of  other 
abolition  papers.  After  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  and  Lincoln's  second 
Inaugural,  announcement  of  discontinuance  was  made.  The  last  issue  appeared 
December  29,  1865. 

LIPPINCOTT'S  MAGAZINE,  1868-1916.   A  Philadelphia  monthly. 

One  of  three  magazines  founded  near  1870  —  the  others  Scribner's  Monthly 
and  the  Galaxy  —  that  made  an  active  market  for  American  writers.  Lippin- 
cotfs,  "  a  magazine  of  literature,  science,  and  education,"  made  an  unpreten 
tious  start  and  throughout  its  career  published  little  prose  of  distinction.  Its 
poetry,  however,  was  excellent.  Bayard  Taylor  and  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne 
appeared  in  the  first  and  following  numbers.  Margaret  Preston,  Emma  Laza 
rus,  Thomas  B.  Read,  George  H.  Boker,  Thomas  Dunn  English,  and  Chris 
topher  P.  Cranch  contributed  frequently.  Whitman,  rare  in  the  magazines, 
wrote  in  prose,  and,  most  important  of  all,  Lanier  found  here  a  channel  for 
much  of  his  verse  from  1875  on-  In  later  years  a  feature  of  many  issues  was  a 
complete  short  novel.  In  1916  Lippincotf  s  was  absorbed  by  Scribner's  Magazine. 

LITTELL'S  LIVING  AGE,  1844 .   A  Boston  monthly. 

This  is  the  longest-lived  of  the  eclectic,  or  "  scissors  and  paste-pot,"  maga 
zines.  It  has  been  made  up  of  reprints  from  foreign  periodicals,  sometimes 
quoting  from  English  apparent  sources  articles  which  had  been  borrowed 
there  from  original  American  publications.  In  1874  it  absorbed  Every  Saturday 
(see  p.  491)  and  in  1898  the  Eclectic  Magazine.  It  still  survives. 


494        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

MCCLURE'S  MAGAZINE,  1893 .    A  New  York  monthly. 

S.  S.  McClure  publisher  and  editor.  Fiction  and  poetry  have  been  the  domi 
nant  features.  Contributors  (fiction) :  Kipling,  Stevenson,  Arnold  Bennett, 
Bret  Harte,  Mark  Twain,  Booth  Tarkington,  Robert  Chambers,  O.  Henry, 
Jack  London ;  (verse)  :  Wordsworth,  Browning,  Walt  Whitman  (reprints), 
Kipling,  Witter  Bynner,  Edgar  Lee  Masters,  Hermann  Hagedorn,  Louis  Unter- 
meyer.  It  was  the  first  magazine  to  sell  at  the  popular  price  of  fifteen  cents. 
The  nonliterary  articles  on  affairs  of  the  day  were  prepared  on  assignment  by 
expert  writers  such  as  Ida  Tarbell,  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  and  Lincoln  Steffens, 
years  sometimes  being  spent  on  a  single  series.  In  1905  these  three  assumed 
control  of  the  American,  but  the  policy  has  been  continued  to  the  present. 

MIRROR,  THE  NEW  YORK,  1823-1846.    A  New  York  weekly. 

Founded  by  George  P.  Morris  and  Samuel  Woodworth  (remembered  re 
spectively  for  "  Woodman,  Spare  that  Tree  "  and  "  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket "). 
In  1831  the  Mirror  absorbed  the  Boston  American  Monthly  together  with  its 
editor,  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis.  In  the  next  year  Willis  wrote  for  it  the  first 
of  his  travel  series,  "  Pencillings  by  the  Way,"  continuing  with  weekly  letters 
for  four  years.  In  1839  Hawthorne  became  a  contributor.  In  1844-1845  Poe 
was  subeditor  and  critic,  his  most  famous  contribution  being  "  The  Raven," 
January,  1845.  ^n  J^45  tne  weekly  became  a  daily  —  the  Evening  Mirror — 
and  in  1846  it  was  discontinued. 

NATION,  THE,  1 865 .   A  New  York  weekly. 

Publishers  :  Joseph  H.  Richards,  1865  ;  Evening  Post  Publishing  Co.,  1871 ; 
E.  L.  Godkin  Co.,  1874;  Evening  Post,  1881  ;  New  York  Evening  Post,  1902  ; 
Nation  Press,  Inc.,  New  York,  1915.  Editors  have  changed  frequently,  the 
most  famous  being  the  first,  E.  L.  Godkin,  who  was  in  the  chair  from  1865  to 
1 88 1.  Oswald  Garrison  Villard,  present  editor.  It  has  been  devoted  to  dis 
cussions  of  politics,  art,  and  literature  and  to  reviews  of  the  leading  books 
in  these  fields.  Representative  contributors  have  been  Francis  Parkman, 
T.  R.  Lounsbury,  B.  L.  Gildersleeve,  J.  R.  Lowell,  Carl  Schurz,  James  Bryce, 
William  James,  Paul  Shorey,  and  Stuart  Sherman.  (See  "  Fifty  Years  of 
American  Idealism,"  edited  by  Gustav  Pollak.  1915.  Also  the  "  Semicentenary 
Number,"  1915.) 

NEW  ENGLAND  COURANT,  THE,  1721-1727.   A  Boston  weekly. 

Founded  by  James  Franklin  and  carried  on  by  him  and  a  group  of  friends 
known  as  the  Hell-Fire  Club.  The  Courant  represents  a  violent  and  somewhat 
coarse  reaction  against  the  domination  of  the  New  England  clergy.  It  was 
written  after  the  manner  of  the  Spectator  with  frequent  paraphrased  and  a  few 
quoted  passages.  After  the  imprisonment  of  James  the  paper  was  carried  on 
by  the  youthful  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  had  already  contributed  the  fourteen 
"  Do-Good  Papers."  The  Courant  gave  evidence  of  much  wit  and  enterprise, 
but  quite  lacked  the  urbanity  of  its  English  model. 


LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS     495 

NEW  ENGLAND  MAGAZINE,  THE,  1831-1835.    A  Boston  monthly. 

Founded  by  Joseph  T.  Buckingham,  former  editor  of  the  Polyanthus,  1805- 
1807  and  1812-1814,  the  Ordeal,  1809,  the  New  England  Galaxy,  1817-1828,  and 
the  Boston  Cotirier,  a  daily,  1814-1848.  The  New  England  Magazine,  superior 
to  any  of  these,  was  the  project  of  Edwin,  a  son,  who  gave  it  distinction  in  a 
single  year  of  editorship  before  his  death,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  The  father 
continued  in  charge  for  eighteen  months,  relinquishing  it  for  the  final  year  to 
Charles  Fenno  Hoffman  and  Park  Benjamin.  These  latter  took  the  magazine  to 
New  York  in  January,  1836,  renaming  it  the  American  Monthly  Magazine.  The 
younger  Buckingham  showed  enterprise  in  enlisting  well-known  contributors 
and  acuteness  in  securing  copy  from  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Holmes,  and  Haw 
thorne  before  they  were  widely  known.  It  was  in  the  New  England  that  Holmes 
originated  "  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table  "  in  two  numbers  of  1832, 
reviving  the  theme  in  his  first  Atlantic  series  twenty-five  years  later ;  and  here 
also  Hawthorne  printed  many  stories  now  in  "Twice-Told  Tales"  and  "  Mosses 
from  an  Old  Manse."  (See  "The  First  Arew  England  Magazine  and  its  Editor," 
by  George  Willis  Cooke,  New  England  Magazine  (N.  S.),  March,  1897.) 

NEW  YORK  EVENING  POST,  THE,  1801 .   A  New  York  daily. 

A  Federal  paper  at  first.  Alexander  Hamilton  and  John  Jay  aided  in  its 
establishment.  William  Coleman,  first  editor.  Bryant  began  to  write  for  the 
Post  in  1826.  He  was  editor  from  1829  to  1878. 

NEW  YORK  REVIEW  AND  ATHENAEUM  MAGAZINE,  THE,  (?)-i827-  A  New 

York  monthly. 

A  type  of  the  short-lived  magazine  which  rose  and  then  combined  with  or 
absorbed  others  in  a  succession  of  changes.  This  was  first  the  Review,  then 
in  March,  1826,  it  was  merged  with  another  periodical  into  the  New  York  Lit 
erary  Gazette  or  American  Athenceum,  and  a  little  later  it  combined  with  Parson's 
old  paper,  the  United  States  Literary  Gazette,  to  form  the  United  States  Review 
and  Literary  Gazette.  It  is  mentioned  because  of  Bryant's  contributions  and 
his  editorship  from  1826  until  its  discontinuation. 

NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE,  THE,  1841 .   A  New  York  daily. 

Started  by  Horace  Greeley  as  a  reform  newspaper  in  support  of  President 
Harrison.  In  1847  Greeley  enlisted  the  support  of  several  of  the  Brook  Farm 
group  —  George  Ripley,  Margaret  Fuller,  Charles  A.  Dana,  and  George  Wil 
liam  Curtis  —  and  secured  as  later  contributors  Carl  Schurz,  John  Hay,  Henry 
James,  William  Dean  Howells,  Bayard  Taylor,  Whitelaw  Reid,  E.  C.  Stedman, 
and  others.  The  Tribune  made  much  of  its  literary  side,  not  only  in  book 
reviews  and  discussions  of  contemporary  art  and  letters  but  in  the  inclusion 
of  much  significant  verse.  The  Tribune  was  an  important  ally  in  securing  the 
election  of  Lincoln  and  supporting  his  policies.  It  has  continued  to  be  one  of 
the  leading  New  York  dailies,  but  its  great  days  were  concluded  with  the 
resignation  of  Greeley  in  1872. 


496       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

NEW  REPUBLIC,  THE,  1914 .   A  New  York  weekly. 

A  "  journal  of  opinion  "  founded  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Willard  Straight 
by  Herbert  Croly  and  associates.  As  its  subtitle  indicates,  it  is  chiefly  con 
cerned  with  problems  of  national  and  international  import,  but,  in  addition  to 
the  articles  by  editors  and  contributors  on  affairs  of  the  day,  it  includes  papers 
on  the  art,  music,  and  literature  of  the  present  and  the  recent  past,  occasional 
light  essays,  discriminating  book  reviews,  and  verse.  Representative  contribu 
tors  have  been  John  Graham  Brooks,  John  Dewey,  William  Hard,  Elizabeth 
Shipley  Sargent,  Louis  Untermeyer,  Robert  Frost,  Edwin  Arlington  Robinson, 
and,  from  England,  Norman  Angell,  H.  M.  Brailsford,  and  H.  G.  Wells. 

NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW,  THE,  1815 .    A  Boston  and  New  York 

quarterly. 

Successor  to  the  Boston  Monthly  Anthology,  1803-1811,  being  founded  by 
an  editor,  William  Tudor,  and  several  contributors  who  had  been  members 
of  the  Anthology  Club.  After  three  years  as  a  general  literary  bimonthly  it 
became  a  quarterly  review.  Among  early  contributors,  besides  well-known 
leaders  in  political  thinking,  were  George  Ticknor,  George  Bancroft,  Bryant, 
and  Longfellow.  Until  the  founding  of  the  Atlantic  it  was  the  leading  organ 
of  conservative  thought  in  New  England.  For  the  decade  from  1864  it  was 
under  the  joint  editorship  of  James  Russell  Lowell  and  Charles  Eliot  Norton. 
Since  1878  it  has  been  in  New  York,  changing  in  editorship  and  periods  of 
publication.  It  became  settled  as  a  monthly  under  George  Harvey.  The  more 
purely  literary  American  contributors  of  the  last  few  years  have  been  Howells, 
Mabie,  Matthews,  Woodberry,  Miss  Repplier,  Miss  Teasdale,  Miss  Lowell, 
Hagedorn,  Robinson,  Mackaye,  and  Ficke.  (See  North  American,  Vol.  C, 
p.  315,  and  Vol.  CCI.) 

OUTLOOK,  THE,  1870 .   A  New  York  weekly. 

Founded  in  1870  as  the  Christian  Union,  an  undenominational  paper,  by 
Henry  Ward  Beecher.  In  1876  he  shared  his  duties  as  editor  with  Lyman 
Abbott,  present  editor.  In  1884  Hamilton  Wright  Mabie  was  added  as  asso 
ciate  editor.  Title  was  changed  to  The  Outlook  in  1893.  Mabie  secured  con 
tributions  from  men  like  James  Bryce  and  Edward  Dowden,  translations  from 
the  works  of  Daudet  and  Francois  Coppee.  Recent  American  literary  con 
tributors  :  Ernest  Poole,  Vachel  Lindsay,  Cawein,  Oppenheim.  New  political 
impetus  came  with  contributions  from  Theodore  Roosevelt,  beginning  1909. 
The  paper  has  had  more  or  less  of  ecclesiastical  character  all  along,  but  at 
present  may  be  characterized  as  seeking  to  mold  public  opinion  and  interpret 
current  events.  One  number  of  each  month  is  enlarged  to  contain  special 
departments;  called  Illustrated  Magazine  Number  from  1896  to  1905. 

PENNSYLVANIA  GAZETTE,  THE,  1729-1821.   A  Philadelphia  weekly. 

The  new  name  and  new  periodical  founded  by  Benjamin  Franklin  when  he 
purchased  Samuel  Keimer's  Universal  Instructor  in  October,  1729.  The  news 


LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS     497 

element  was  slight  and  unreliable,  but  the  literary,  Addisonian  essays  gave  the 
paper  character  at  once.  These  gave  way  later  to  essays  more  distinctly  pecul 
iar  to  Franklin's  own  point  of  view  and  kind  of  humor.  The  book  advertise 
ments  supplemented  this  essay  material  in  contributing  to  the  broader  culture 
of  the  readers.  After  Franklin's  personal  withdrawal  the  traditions  of  the 
Gazette  were  continued.  In  1765  Franklin  sold  out  to  his  partner  David  Hall. 
With  the  death  of  his  grandson,  also  David  Hall,  the  paper  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Atkinson  and  Alexander  and  was  renamed  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post  (p.  498). 

POETRY,  1912 .   A  Chicago  monthly. 

A  magazine  of  verse.  Harriet  Monroe,  editor.  Ralph  Fletcher  Seymour  Co., 
Chicago,  publishers.  Advisory  committee :  H.  B.  Fuller,  Edith  Wyatt,  and 
H.  C.  Chatfield  Taylor.  It  was  guaranteed  for  five  years  by  endowment  fund 
and  contained  no  advertisements  at  the  beginning.  It  has  been  a  vehicle 
for  poetry  from  all  parts  of  the  world  by  poets  with  or  without  fame.  Now 
it  contains  book-list  awards,  reviews,  and  poetry  announcements  and  advertise 
ments.  The  original  staff  is  almost  unchanged.  It  seems  to  be  on  a  sound 
financial  footing. 

POOR  RICHARD'S  ALMANAC,  1733-1748. 

Founded  by  Benjamin  Franklin.  Its  chief  feature  was  its  inclusion  in  the 
reading  matter  of  the  proverbial  sayings,  the  best  of  which  were  combined  in 
"  The  Way  to  Wealth."  It  was  characterized  by  a  French  critic  of  the  day 
as  "  the  first  popular  almanac  which  spoke  the  language  of  reason."  It  was 
conducted  by  Franklin  until  1748. 

PORT  FOLIO,  THE,  1806-1827.    A  Philadelphia  weekly  and  monthly. 

Founded  by  Joseph  Dennie  as  a  weekly  newspaper.  From  1806  to  1809, 
though  continuing  as  a  weekly,  it  assumed  the  character  of  a  literary  maga 
zine,  and  in  the  latter  year  became  a  monthly.  Its  most  distinctive  period  was 
in  the  first  eleven  years  before  the  death  of  Dennie.  While  he  was  editor 
the  Port  Folio  was  a  vehicle  of  "  polite  letters."  It  was  imitative  in  style  and 
reminiscent  in  point  of  view,  but  it  was  wholesome  in  its  honesty  about  Ameri 
can  matters  and  manners  and  exerted  a  strong  and  healthy  influence.  The 
best-known  contributors  were  the  editor,  "  Oliver  Oldschool,"  John  Quincy 
Adams,  and  Charles  Brockden  Brown. 

PUTNAM'S,  1853-1858,  1868-1870,  1906-1910.   A  New  York  monthly. 

Publishers,  G.  P.  Putnam  and  Co.,  New  York.  Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine 
of  American  literature,  science,  and  art.  Established  by  George  P.  Putnam 
with  the  assistance  of  George  William  Curtis  and  others.  In  1857  merged  into 
Emerson's  United  States  Magazine,  which  was  continued  as  Emerson's  Magazine 
and  Putnam's  Monthly.  Discontinued  November,  1858.  January,  1868- 
November,  1870,  Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine.  Original  papers  on  literature, 


498        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

science,  art,  and  national  interests.  Merged  into  Scribner's  Monthly,  Decem 
ber,  1870.  October,  ipoo-Marchi  1910,  reestablished  and  merged  with  the 
Critic,  founded  in  1881  ;  issued  by  Messrs.  Putnam  since  1898.  An  illustrated 
monthly  of  literature,  art,  and  life.  Absorbed  the  Reader,  March,  1908.  Titles 
vary  during  this  period.  A  large  number  of  full-page  and  smaller  illustrations. 
One  serial  running,  small  proportion  of  verse,  special  articles,  comments,  and 
criticisms  on  literature  and  the  fine  arts,  science,  travel,  statesmanship.  Alter 
nating  emphasis  with  successive  issues  on  the  different  arts.  Typical  con 
tributors  and  contributions,  with  illustrations  concerning :  Lafcadio  Hearn, 
Mark  Twain,  William  Dean  Howells,  Stedman,  Stoddard,  Henry  James,  Long 
fellow,  Franklin,  Margaret  Deland,  Maeterlinck,  Thomas  Edison,  Binet,  Corot, 
Helen  Keller,  Nazimova,  Gladstone,  the  Bonapartes.  Absorbed  by  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  April,  1910. 

ROUND  TABLE,  THE,  1864-1869.   A  New  York  monthly. 

A  literary  journal  founded  in  New  York  in  emulation  of  Boston's  Atlantic 
and  supported  with  great  interest  by  Aldrich,  Stedman,  Bayard  Taylor,  and 
their  circle.  It  was  suspended  during  parts  of  1864-1865  and  discontinued  in 
July,  1869,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  to  secure  a  subsidy  for  it  from  the  wealthy 
men  of  New  York. 

RUSSELL'S  MAGAZINE,  1857-1860.   A  Charleston  monthly. 

Founded  by  John  Russell,  Charleston  bookseller,  with  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne 
as  editor.  A  monthly  periodical  for  the  literary  group  centering  around  Wil 
liam  Gilmore  Simms.  Contained  fiction,  sketches,  addresses,  reviews,  and 
essays  on  various  topics  —  political,  historical,  literary,  artistic,  scientific. 
These  were  mainly  unsigned,  but  the  leading  contributors  were  Simms, 
Hayne,  Timrod,  James  L.  Petigru,  John  D.  Bruns,  and  Basil  Gildersleeve. 
With  the  approach  of  the  Civil  War  it  was  discontinued  March,  1860.  (Lives 
of  P.  H.  Hayne  and  W.  G.  Simms.  Three  Notable  Ante-Bellum  Magazines  of 
South  Carolina,  Sidney  J.  Cohen,  University  of  South  Carolina,  Bulletin  42.) 

SATURDAY  EVENING  POST,  THE,  1821 .    A  Philadelphia  weekly. 

A  lineal  descendant  of  Franklin's  Pennsylvania  Gazette  (see  p.  496).  It  was 
given  its  present  name  in  1821  when  Samuel  C.  Atkinson  and  Charles  Alex 
ander  took  control,  Atkinson  being  the  surviving  partner  of  David  Hall, 
grandson  and  namesake  of  Franklin's  partner  to  whom  the  Gazette  was  sold  in 
1765.  In  one  hundred  and  eighty  years  the  only  interruption  to  consecutive 
issues  was  during  the  British  occupation  of  Philadelphia.  The  Post  of  recent 
years  has  been  one  of  the  American  weeklies  of  largest  circulation.  It  con 
tains  fiction,  up-to-date  personalia,  and  brisk  articles  on  the  affairs  of  the 
moment.  Its  attitude  toward  thrift,  industry,  and  the  way  to  wealth  is  com 
pletely  consistent  with  the  ethics  of  Franklin.  It  is  conducted  by  the  Curtis 
Publishing  Company  and  edited  by  George  H.  Lorimer. 


LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS     499 

SATURDAY  PRESS,  THE,  1858-1860.   A  New  York  weekly. 

The  special  organ  of  the  "  Bohemians  "  —  a  group  of  New  Yorkers  who  ac 
knowledged  Henry  M.  Clapp  as  their  leader.  Other  contributors  were  Fitz- 
James  O'Brien,  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  R.  H.  Stoddard,  William  Winter,  and 
E.  C.  Stedman,  The  Press  was  brilliant  but  short-lived,  announcing  in  its  last 
number  in  early  1860  that  it  was  "  discontinued  for  lack  of  funds  which  [was],  by 
a  coincidence,  precisely  the  reason  for  which  it  was  started."  (See  H.  M.  Clapp 
in  Winter's  "  Other  Days,"  and  "  The  Life  of  Stedman,"  by  Stedman  and  Gould.) 

SCRIBNER'S  MAGAZINE,  1886 .   A  New  York  monthly. 

Founded  December,  1886,  by  Messrs.  Scribner  (entirely  distinct  from  old 
Scribner's  Monthly],  with  E.  L.  Burlingame  as  editor.  Illustrated.  Typical 
contributors,  in  the  early  years :  H.  C.  Bunner,  Joel  Chandler  Harris,  Sarah 
Orne  Jewett,  Barrett  Wendell,  E.  H.  Blashford,  Richard  Henry  Stoddard, 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  T.  W.  Higginson,  W.  C.  Brownell,  Charles  Edwin 
Markham,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson ;  in  recent  years :  Winston  Churchill, 
J.  L.  Laughlin,  W.  C.  Brownell,  Meredith  Nicholson,  John  Galsworthy,  etc. 
Articles  of  popular  interest  on  art,  music,  nature,  travel,  and  since  1914  a 
section  given  to  the  World  War.  Aim  and  policy  unchanged. 

SCRIBNER'S  MONTHLY,  1870-1881.   A  New  York  monthly. 

Founded  by  Roswell  Smith,  manager,  and  J.  G.  Holland,  editor,  and  published 
as  Scribner's,  but  not  like  Harper's  as  a  publishing-house  magazine.  The  design 
from  the  first  was  to  deal  with  matters  of  social  and  religious  opinion  from 
the  liberal  viewpoint.  At  the  outset  it  absorbed  Hours  at  Home  and  Putnam's 
and  in  1873  Edward  Everett  Hale's  Old  and  New.  It  was  the  first  to  under 
take  a  series  on  the  new  South  and  to  encourage  Southern  contributors,  in 
cluding  Lanier,  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  George  W.  Cable,  and  Joel  Chandler 
Harris.  Most  notable  among  its  series  were  portions  of  Grant's  Memoirs  and 
Hay  and  Nicolay's  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  George  Kennan's  Siberian  papers,  and 
Hay's  anonymous  novel "  The  Breadwinners."  Scribner's  Monthly  was  a  pioneer 
in  the  use  of  illustrations  made  by  the  new  mechanical  methods  of  reproduc 
tion.  The  magazine  never  printed  or  sold  less  than  40,000  copies,  and  when 
in  1 88 1  it  changed  ownership  and  became  the  Century  it  had  a  circulation  of 
125,000.  (See  Tassin's  "The  Magazine  in  America,"  pp.  287-301.) 

SOUTHERN  LITERARY  MESSENGER,  1834-1865.   A  Richmond  monthly. 

Founded  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  in  August,  1834,  by  Thomas  W.  White,  as 
a  semimonthly,  but  changed  to  a  monthly  almost  at  once.  Poe  contributed  to  the 
seventh  number  and  from  then  on  in  each  number  till  he  became  assistant 
editor  from  July,  1835,  to  January,  1837.  During  this  period  the  circulation 
increased  from  700  to  5000.  Well  established  by  this  time,  it  continued  as  the 
most  substantial  and  longest  lived  of  the  Southern  magazines.  A  vehicle  for 
literature  between  the  too  heavy  and  the  frivolous,  and  an  honest  review. 


500        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Poe's  contributions  outrank  those  of  any  other  writer,  but  the  list  of  contribu 
tors  includes  N.  P.  Willis,  C.  F.  Hoffman,  R.  W.  Griswold,  J.  G.  Holland, 
R.  H.  Stoddard,  W.  M.  Thackeray,  Charles  Dickens,  G.  P.  R.  James,  John 
Randolph,  R.  H.  Bird,  Philip  P.  Cooke,  J.  W.  Legare,  P.  H.  Hayne,  Henry 
Timrod,  John  P.  Kennedy,  and  Sidney  Lanier.  (See  "  The  Southern  Literary 
Messenger,"  by  B.  B.  Minor.) 

SOUTHERN  MAGAZINE,  THE,  1871-1875.   A  Baltimore  monthly. 

The  most  distinguished  of  the  several  short-lived  Southern  magazines  es 
tablished  in  the  Civil  War  reconstruction  period.  It  was  a  continuation  of  the 
New  Eclectic,  but  included,  in  addition  to  the  English  reprints,  original  work 
by  many  Southern  authors.  These  were,  among  others,  Margaret  Preston, 
Malcolm  Johnson,  Sidney  Lanier,  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne,  and  Professors  Gil- 
dersleeve  and  Price.  It  could  pay  nothing  for  manuscript,  however,  and  the 
new  interest  in  Southern  writing  awakened  by  Scribner's  in  1873,  and  responded 
to  by  Harper's,  the  Atlantic,  Lippincotfs,  the  Independent,  and  others,  furnished 
support  as  well  as  stimulation  to  its  best  contributors  and  hastened  its  death 
at  the  end  of  five  years. 

WESTERN  MESSENGER,  THE  (Cincinnati),  1835-1841. 

Begun  by  Reverend  Ephraim  Peabody.  Published  by  Western  Unitarian 
Society  aided  by  American  Unitarian  Association.  Purposed  to  make  it  a 
vehicle  for  clear,  rational  discussion  of  important  and  interesting  topics.  Dis 
cussed  reform  movements,  religious  questions  and  creeds,  and  encouraged 
expression  of  all  cultural  ideas,  —  literary  articles,  poetry,  book  reviews,  etc. 
Contributors  :  Mann  Butler,  W.  D.  Gallagher,  James  H.  Perkins,  R.  W.  Emer 
son,  J.  S.  Dwight,  Elizabeth  P.  Peabody,  Jones  Very,  James  Freeman  Clarke, 
Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  Professor  Calvin  E.  Stowe,  Margaret  Fuller,  C.  P.  Cranch. 
Sought  to  make  it  Western  in  spirit  with  many  Western  contributors  and  articles 
on  history  of  the  West.  1836-1839  in  Louisville,  under  J.  F.  Clarke,  then  back 
to  Cincinnati,  under  William  H.  Channing,  till  April,  1841. 

WESTERN  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE,  THE  (Cincinnati),  1833-1836. 

Edited  for  two  and  one-half  years  by  James  Hall  and  for  six  months  by 
Joseph  R.  Foy.  Thirty-seven  contributors,  of  whom  six  were  women  and  only 
three  from  east  of  the  Alleghenies.  Harriet  Beecher  won  "  the  prize  tale  "  in 
April,  1834,  and  contributed  another  story  in  July.  The  contents  made  up 
largely  of  expository  articles  on  art,  history,  biology,  travel,  education, 
economics,  and  modern  sociology.  The  book  notices  were  independent 
and  discriminating. 

YALE  REVIEW,  THE,  1892-1911,  1911 .    Issued  quarterly. 

Continued  New  Englander  and  Yale  Review.  G.  P.  Fisher  and  others,  edi 
tors.  In  1900  changed  from  a  "journal  of  history  and  political  science  "  to  a 
"Journal  for  the  Scientific  Discussion  of  Economic,  Political,  and  Social 


LEADING  NINETEENTH-CENTURY  PERIODICALS     501 

Questions";  1911 "a  quarterly  magazine  devoted  to  Literature,  Science, 

History,  and  Public  Opinion."  Yale  Publishing  Association,  Inc.,  Wilbur  D. 
Cross,  chief  editor.  Not  an  official  publication  of  Yale  University.  Made  up 
of  serious  articles  and  essays,  some  light  essays  and  verse,  and  literary  criti 
cism.  Leading  contributors,  prose :  W.  H.  Taft,  Norman  Angell,  Walter 
Lippman,  Simeon  Strunsky,  Vida  D.  Scudder ;  verse :  Witter  Bynner,  Louis 
Untermeyer,  Sara  Teasdale,  Edgar  Lee  Masters,  Robert  Frost,  John  Masefield. 
Thus  its  place  as  a  literary  periodical  has  been  assumed  only  within  the  last 
decade.  The  old  New  Englander  (1843-1892)  was  a  substantial  and  dignified 
journal  but  included  the  work  of  no  writer  of  even  minor  literary  achievement. 


INDEX 


"Abraham     Davenport"  (Whittier), 

261 
"Acknowledgment"     (Lanier),    355, 

356 

Adams,  John,  68,  69,  343 

Addison,  Joseph,  45,  47,  48,  102,  116, 
123,  163,  166,  191,  254,  317,  343 

"Adios"  (Miller),  407 

Agassiz,  Louis,  229,  294 

"Agile  Sonneteer,  The"  (Sill),  401 

"Al  Aaraaf,  Tamerlane,  and  Minor 
Poems"  (Poe),  176 

Alcott,  Bronson,  195,  196 

Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey,  324,  327-331, 
332,411,453 

"Alectryon"  (Stedman),  333 

"  Algerine  Captive,  The  "  (Tyler),  103 

Allan,  John,  174,  175,  176,  179 

Allston,  Washington,  313 

Almanacs,  colonial,  50,  51 

"American  Anthology,  An"  (Sted 
man),  332 

American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  257, 
258 

"American  Claimant,  The"  (Twain), 

383 

American  deference  to  Old  World 
culture,  70,  78,  79,94,  108,  111-114, 
120,  121,  133,  142,  143,  152,  153, 154, 
163,  168,  177,  190,  201,  204,  268,  272, 

292,  333'  336,  367>  389. 4i9'  433'  43^ 
American  isolation,  1 1 1 
"  American    Literature,    Library   of " 

(Stedman),  332 
American  Magazine,  The,  487 
American  Manufacturer,  The,  255 
American  Monthly  Magazine,  The,  239 
"  American  Notebooks  "  (Hawthorne), 

241 
"  American  Register,  The  "  (Brown), 

102 
"American  Scholar, The"  (Emerson), 

204 

"American,  The"  (James),  423 
Ames,  Nathaniel,  50,  51 
Amesbury  (Mass.),  253 


"Among  my  Books"  (Lowell),  289 

"Among  the  Redwoods"  (Sill),  399 

Andover  (Mass.),  22,  304 

"Andre"  (Dunlap),  96 

Andros,  Governor,  27 

"Annabel  Lee"  (Poe),  179 

"Annie  Kilburn  "  (Howells),  419 

"Antiquity  of  Freedom,  The" 
(Whittier),  166 

"April  Hopes"  (Howells),  418 

Arcturus,  283 

Arnold,  Matthew,  213,  216 

"Arrow  and  the  Song,  The"  (Long 
fellow),  272 

"Arthur  Mervyn  "  (Brown),  105,  106 

Atlantic  Monthly,  The,  232,  265,  267, 
288, 305,  314,  317,  327,  329,  345,  381, 
397,  415,  416,  478,  488 

Austen,  Jane,  107,  249 

"Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table, 
The"  (Holmes),  316-318 

"Autumn"  (Thoreau),  230 

"Awkward  Age,  The"  (James),  423 

Bakst,  Leon,  184 

«  Ballad  of  Babie  Bell,  The  "  (Aldrich), 

330 

"  Ballad  of  the  Oysterman,  The  " 
(Holmes),  315 

"Ballads  and  other  Poems"  (Long 
fellow),  271 

Baltimore  Saturday  Visiter,  The,  176, 
488 

"  Barbara  Frietchie  "  (Whittier),  260 

Barlow,  Joel,  65r  76,  86,  1 1 1 

"Baroness  of  New  York,  The" 
(Miller),  404,  406 

"Battlefield,  The"  (Whittier),  166 

"Bay  Psalm  Book,"  5,  19,  21 

"  Beat!  Beat!  Drums! " (Whitman), 366 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  92 

"Bee,  The"  (Lanier),  354 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  299 

"Bells,  The"  (Poe),  179,  183 

"  Bells :  a  Collection  of  Chimes,  The  " 
(Aldrich),  330 


503 


504        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


Bennett,  James  Gordon,  385 

Bierce,  Ambrose,  187 

"Biglow  Papers"  (Lowell),  284,  285, 
286 

"  Bill  and  Joe"  (Holmes),  320 

Bird,  Robert  M.,  93,  97 

"Black  Cat,  The"  (Poe),  186 

Blake,  William,  182 

•'Blithedale  Romance,  The,"  (Haw 
thorne),  241,  244,  245 

Bohemia,  328,  335,  345,  363 

Boker,  George  H.,  93 

Book  Lists,  13,  24,  37,  57,  58,  67, 
84-87,  98,  108,  137-139.  155'  '56» 
171,  188,  197,  218,  233,  249,  265,279, 
296,  308,  321,  340,  358,  377,  393, 
408,  434,  451,  484 

Boston,  5,  8,  28,  34,  42,  50,  77,  91,  173, 
199,  240,  252,  261,  267,  306,  307,  310, 
332>  343»  4i6 

Boston  Miscellany,  The,  283 

Boucicault,  Dion,  437 

Bowdoin  College,  238,  268,  301,  325 

"Bracebridge    Hall"     (Irving),    117, 

417 

Brackenridge,  H.  H.,  97,  103 
Bradford,  William,  7,  8 
Bradstreet,  Anne,  21-26,  83,  301 
Bradstreet,  Simon,  21 
"Brahma"  (Emerson),  214 
"Bravo,  The"  (Cooper),  153 
Bridge,  Horatio,  240 
"Bridge,  The"  (Longfellow),  272 
Broadway  Journal,  The,  178,  488 
"  Broker  of  Bogota,  The  "  (Bird),  97 
Brook  Farm,  196,  197,  240 
Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  The,  363,  488 
"  Broomstick  Train,  The  "  (Holmes), 

320 
"  Brother  Jonathan's  Lament  for  Sister 

Caroline"  (Holmes),  319 
Brown,   Charles  Brockden,    100-109, 

412 
Brown,  John,    "of   Harper's   Ferry," 

232 

Brownell,  Henry  Howard,  331 
Browning,  Robert,  261,  358 
"Brutus"  (Payne),  97 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  no,  158-171, 

190,   191,   269,   277,  292,  324,  325, 

357.  414 

Buffalo  Express,  The,  384 
Bunyan,  John,  47,  274 
Burke,  Edmund,  58 


Burns,  Robert,  255,  256,  262,  264 
Burroughs,  John,  229,  364,  375 
Burton's    Gentleman's  Magazine,  177, 

491 

Bynner,  Witter,  453,  482-484 
Byron,  Lord,  175,  256,  370,  405,  406 

Cable,  George  W.,  412,  424,  425 
California,  380,    381,    383,    396,  397, 

398,  399,  400,  403,  406 
Cambridge,  England,  10 
Cambridge  (Mass.),  50,  211,  267,  282, 

3i°»  397 

Campbell,  Thomas,  316,  317 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  191,  202,  228,  253, 

275»  364 
"Cask  of  Amontillado,  The"   (Poe), 

179,  182,  183,  186 
"Cassandra    Southwick"    (Whittier), 

261 
"Celestial  Pilot,  The"  (Longfellow), 

271 

Century,  The,  336,  489 
Century  Club,  170 
"ChamberedNautilus.The  "(Holmes), 

3*9 

Channing,  William  Ellery,  229,  231 
Charles  I,  47 
Charles  II,  30 

"Charles  II  "  (Payne-Irving),  97 
Charleston  (S.  C.),  45,  77,  89,  91,  344, 

345 

"Charlotte"  (Rowson),  103 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  22 
Chesterfield,  Lord,  53,  95 
Chesterton,  Gilbert,  187 
"Christmas  in  California"  (Sill),  399 
"Christus:  a  Mystery"  (Longfellow), 

274,  278 

Chronological  charts,  90 
Church  of  England,  10,  27,  33 
Churchill,  Winston,  420,  431,  432 
Cincinnati,  300 
Citizen  of  the  World,  116 
Civil  War,  73,  94,  168 
Clemm,  Virginia,  179 
"Clocks of  Gnoster Town, The  "(Sill), 

398 
Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  191,  202, 

405 

Collins,  Wilkie,  187 
Colonization,  4,  5,  61,  66 
Columbia  University  (Oregon),  402 
"Columbiad,  The"  (Barlow),  76 


INDEX 


505 


"Comet,  The"  (Holmes),  315 
"Commemoration     Ode"     (Lowell), 

289,  294 

"Compensation"  (Emerson),  212 
"  Concord  Centennial,  The  "  (Lowell), 

289 
"Concord  Hymn,  The"  (Emerson), 

214 

Conservator,  The,  489 
Concord  (Mass.),  191,    192-194,  202, 

210,  221,  236,  245,  267,  282,  283,  332 
Congregationalist  and  Christian  World, 

489 

"Conqueror  Worm,  The"  (Poe),  185 
"Conquest  of  Granada"  (Irving),  117 
Consular  service,  118,  241,  416 
"Contentment"  (Holmes),  320 
"Contrast,  The  "  (Tyler),  91,  94-96 
"Conversations  on  some  of  the  Old 

Poets"  (Lowell),  283 
"Coplas    de    Don   Jorge    Manrique, 

The"  (Longfellow),  271 
Cooper,  James   Fenimore,  6,  75,  94, 

108,   no,   130,    141-157*   !7o.    I9°» 

200,  269,  292 
"Corn"  (Lanier),  354 
"Cotton  Boll,  The"  (Timrod),  346 
Cotton,  Reverend  John,  u 
Craig,  Gordon,  184 
Crawford,  F.  Marion,  424,  426 
"Credo"  (Gilder),  340 
Crevecceur,  M.  G.  St.  J.,  59-68,  69,  83, 

227,  229 

"Crisis,  The"  (Churchill),  259,  427 
Critic,  The,  490 
"Croaker     Papers"     (Halleck     and 

Drake),  134,  314 
"Culprit    Fay,    The"    (Drake),   135- 

136,  181 

"Daily  Trials"  (Holmes),  315 

Dante,  267,  271,  277 

Dartmouth  College,  312 

"Dawn"  (Gilder),  337 

"Day  is  Done,   The"  (Longfellow), 

272 
"  Day  of  Doom,  The  "  (Wigglesworth), 

18-21,  51,  83 
"Deacon's        Masterpiece,        The" 

(Holmes),  305,  315,  318,  320 
"Death   of   Slavery,  The"   (Bryant), 

1 68 

"Deerslayer,  The"  (Cooper),  144 
Deland,  Margaret,  307,  428,  430 


"Demagogue,  The"  (Gilder),  338 
Democracy,  27,  65,  116 
"Democracy"  (Lowell),  293 
Democratic  Revieiu,  The,  362,  490 
Defoe,  Daniel,  47 
"Departure  of  the  Pilot,  The"  (Sill), 

399 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  202,  415 

"Destiny"  (Aldrich),  331 

Detective  story,  the,  186 

Dial,  The  (Boston),  195,  196,  314,  345 

Dial,  The  (Chicago),  490 

Dickens,  Charles,  119,  186,381,416, 
418 

Diction,  literary,  10-11,  49,  81,  106, 
119,  130,  131,  212,  263,  370,  400,  406 

Diplomatic  service,  117,  118,  290 

"Divinity  School  Address"  (Emer 
son),  206 

"Doctor  Grimshaw's  Secret"  (Haw 
thorne),  241 

"Dolliver  Romance,  The"  (Haw 
thorne),  241 

"Domestic  Life"  (Emerson),  223 

"Dorothy  Q."  (Holmes),  320 

Doyle,  Sir  Arthur  Conan,  187 

Drake,  Joseph  Rodman,  134-136,  164, 
176 

Drama,  89-99,  338>  344>  437~452 

Dramatic  producers,  91,  96,  437,  443- 

444 
"Dred,  a  Tale  of  the  Great  Dismal 

Swamp"  (Stowe),  305 
"Drum-Taps"  (Whitman),  365 
Dryden,  John,  78 

Dunlap,  William,  91,  96,  100,  437,  439 
Dwight,  James  S.,  313 
Dwight,  Timothy,  65,  75,  85,  103,  in 

"Earth"  (Bryant),  168 
"Earth  Song"  (Emerson),  253 
"Edgar  Huntly  "  (Brown),  106 
Edinburgh  Revieiv,  The,    1 19 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  41,   43,   56,  102, 

103 

Egan,  Pierce,  95,  103 
Eliot,  George,  307,  416 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  2,  4,  24 
"Elsie  Venner"  (Holmes),  312,  315 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  60,  136,  190, 
191,  195,    196,    199-220,    221,   222, 
223,  225,  227,  229,  230,  232,  236,  252, 
279,  287,  288,   293,  311,  339,  340, 
364,  369,  375,  453 


506        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


"Emigrants,  The"  (Imlay),  103 
English     recognition     of    American 

authors,  107,  in,  118,  119,  150 
"  Essay  for  the  recording  of  Illustrious 

Providences,  An"  (I.  Mather),  29, 

3°»  31 
"  Essays  to  Do  Good  "  (C.  Mather), 

47 
"Ethiopia      Saluting     the     Colors" 

(Whitman),  368 

"Ethnogenesis"  (Timrod),  346 
European  travel,  115,  132,   151,  202, 

241,  268,  269,  286,  383,  389 
"Evangeline  "  (Longfellow),  273,  274, 

276 

Evelyn,  John,  33 
Evening  Mirror,  The,  178,327 
Every  Saturday,  327,  328,  491 
Everybody's  Magazine,  491 
"Excelsior"  (Longfellow),  271 
"Eye  of  a  Needle,  The  "   (Howells), 

419 

"Fable  for  Critics,  A"  (Lowell),  151, 

284,  285 
"  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher,  The  " 

(Poe),  182 

"  Familiar  Portraits"  (Stevenson),  228 
"Fanny"  (Halleck),  134,  135,  334 
"Fanshawe"  (Hawthorne),  239 
"Farewell  to  Agassiz"  (Holmes),  320 
"Fashion"  (Mowatt),  95 
"  Fearful  Responsibility,  A"  (Howells), 

41? 

Fielding,  Henry,  415,  418 
Fields,  James  T.,  238,  241,. 288,  328, 

Fitch,  Clyde,  438,  439,  440,  444 

'Five  Lives"  (Sill),  400 

'Flood  of  Years,  The"  (Bryant),  169 

'Fool's  Errand,  A"  (Tourgee),  348 

'Force"  (Sill),  400 

'  Foregone  Conclusion,  A  "  (Howells), 

417 
"  Franklin,  Autobiography  of,"  49,  50, 

51'  52-55 
Franklin,    Benjamin,   43-57,   69,   83, 

254,  387 

"  Freedom  of  the  Will  "  (Edwards),  42 
Freneau,  Philip,  69,  72-82,  83,  85,  100, 

163,  1 68,  261 

"  Fringed  Gentian,  The"  (Bryant),  162 
Frost,  Robert,  453,  466-469 
Fuller,  Margaret,  195,  196 


Garland,  Hamlin,  412,  429-430,  441 

Galaxy,  The,  491 

Garrison,  William    Lloyd,   254,    255, 

256,  302 
"Garrison  of  Cape  Ann"  (Whittier), 

261 

George  III,  66 
German  influence,  97,  127,  191,  271, 

272 
"Gilded    Age,    The"     (Twain    and 

Warner),  382 

Gilder,  Richard  Watson,  324,  336-340 
Gilman,  President  Daniel  C.  397 
Godey's  Lady's  Book,  178,  1 80,  491 
Godfrey,  Thomas,  91,  92,  96 
Godwin,  William,  101, 104, 105, 106, 107 
"Gold  Bug,  The"  (Poe),  178,  186 
"Golden  Legend,  The  "  (Longfellow), 

274 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  116,  123,  163,  191, 

249,  262,  268,  316,  317,  416,  441 
Goodrich,  S.  G.,  239 
"  Good  Shepherd,  The  "  ( Longfellow), 

271 

Gothic  romance,  104,  107 
Graham's  Magazine,  178,  283?  492 
"  Grandissimes,  The  "  (Cable),  425 
"Grave,  The"  (Longfellow),  271 
Greeley,  Horace,  325,  328,  385 
"Greenfield  Hill"  (Dwight),  75 
"  Guardian  Angel,  The  "  ( Holmes),  313 
"Gulliver's  Travels,"  122,  274 

"  Hail  Columbia,"  96 

Halleck,  Fitz-Greene,   113,   133-137, 

181,  324,  325,  328,  330,  334 
"Hampton  Beach"  (Whittier),  261 
"  Happiest  Land,  The  "  (Longfellow), 

271 

Hardy,  Thomas,  187 
Harper's  Magazine,  419,  492 
Harris,  Joel  Chandler,  412,  424,  425 
Harte,  Bret,  49  (note),  151,  380,  381, 

411,  412,  415 
Hartford  (Conn.),  261,  299,  305,  332, 

384 
Harvard  College,  28,  29,  33,  42,  200, 

204,  206,  207,  221,  268,  269,  270, 

280,  287,  310,  312,  315,  325,  327 
Haverhill,  252,  253,  332 
Haverhill  Gazette,  The,  255,  256 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  36,  108,  118, 

190,   191,   196,    200,   236-251,   252, 

411,  412 


INDEX 


507 


Hay,  John,  118,  431 

Hayne,  Paul  Hamilton,  347-349,  350 

"Hazard     of     New     Fortunes,     A" 

(Howells),  419 

"Headsman,  The"  (Cooper),  153 
"Heartsease  and  Rue"  (Lowell),  291 
"Heidenmauer,  The"  (Cooper),  153 
"Her  Explanation"  (Sill),  400 
"Heredity"  (Aldrich),  331 
"Hermitage,    The"   (Sill),  397,  398, 

400 

"Heroic  Age,  The  "  (Gilder),  338 
"Hiawatha,  The  Song  of"  (Longfel 
low),  273,  275,  276,  364,  369 
Histories,  American,  7,  29,  32 
"History  of  the    Life   and  Voyages 

of   Christopher    Columbus,    The " 

(Irving),  117 
"History  of  Plimouth  Plantation,  A" 

(Bradford),  7 
Holmes,   Oliver   Wendell,    170,   190, 

228,  252,  267,  310-323,  325,  328, 

329.  333»  412,  431 

"Home  Acres"  (Gilder),  337 

"Home  as  Found"  (Cooper),  7 5,  153, 
190 

Home  Journal,  The,  492 

"Homeward  Bound"  (Cooper),  153, 
190 

Hopkinson,  Francis,  68,  69,  70,  84,  92 

Hopkinson,  Joseph,  96 

Hours  at  Home,  336 

"House  of  the  Seven  Gables  "  (Haw 
thorne),  241,  242,  245,  246 

Hovey,  Richard,  93,  444,  445,  454~457 

"How  Love  Looked  for  Hell" 
(Lanier),  355 

"How  to  Tell  a  Story"  (Twain),  386 

Howard,  Bronson,  437 

Howe,  Julia  Ward,  93 

Howells,  William  Dean,  49  (note),  118, 
249,  293,  328, 339,  384,  393,  413-422, 

427 

"Hugh  Wynne"  (Mitchell),  426 
"Hymn  of  the  City"  (Bryant),  165 
"Hymn  to  Death"  (Bryant),  161 
"Hyperion"  (Longfellow),  270 

"I'll  not  Confer  with  Sorrow"  (Aid- 
rich),  331 

"Image  of  God,  The"  (Longfellow), 
271 

Imagists,  231,  479 

Imlay,  G.,  103 


Immigration  to  America,  61 
*  Imp  of  the  Perverse,  The  "  (Poe),  185 
'In  Helena's  Garden"  (Gilder),  337 
'In  School  Days"  (Whittier),  261 
'In  Times  of  Peace  "  (Gilder),  338 
'In  War  Time  "  (Stedman),  333 
Independent,  The,  492 
"  Indian        Burying-Ground,      The " 

(Freneau),  80 

Indians,  8,  66,  93,  94,  143,  144,  146 
"Innocents    Abroad,  The"  (Twain), 

383*  388 
"  Inside  of  the  Cup,  The  "  (Churchill), 

420,  431 
International     copyright,     119,    139, 

302  (note) 

Internationalism,  56 
"Iron  Woman,  The"  (Deland),  307 
Irving,  Washington,  6,  115-133,  170, 

190,   249,  269,   292,  324,  325,  385, 

411,  416 

"Isles  of  the  Amazons  "  (Miller),  404 
"Italian  Journeys"  (Howells),  417 
"Italian    Notebooks"    (Hawthorne), 

241 

James  I,  30 
James  II,  47 

James,  Henry,  417,  418,  422-424 
James,  William,  372 
"Janice  Meredith"  (Ford),  426 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  343 
"Joan  of  Arc  "  (Twain),  388 
"Joaquin  et  al."  (Miller),  403 
"John  Marvel,  Assistant"  (Page),  420 
"John  Phoenix,"  385,  388 
Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  53,  73,  163 
Jonson,  Ben,  22 

"Journey     from     Patapsco     to    An 
napolis,  A  "  (Lewis),  81 
"Jumping  Frog,  The  "  (Twain),  384 
"June"  (Bryant),  182 
"Jungle,  The"  (Sinclair),  420 
"Justice  and  Expediency  "  (Whittier), 
257 

"Kavanagh"  (Longfellow),  270 
Keats,  John,  338 

Kennedy,  Charles  Rann,  447-450 
"Kentons,  The"  (Howells),  422 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  187 
"Knickerbocker's    History    of   New 

York"  (Irving),  117 
Knickerbocker  Magazine,  The,  239,  493 


508        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


Knickerbocker  school,  177 

Knight,  Mrs.  Sarah  Kemble,  35-36,  83 

"Lakeside,  The"  (Whittier),  261 

Lanier,  Sidney,  168,  349-358 

"  Last  of  the  Mohicans,The  "(Cooper), 

144,  150 

"Last  Leaf,  The"  (Holmes),  314 
"Last  Taschastas,  The"  (Miller),  404 
"Last      Walk     in     Autumn,     The" 

(Whittier),  261 
"Latter-Day    Warnings"    (Holmes), 

3*5 

Leacock,  John,  97 
"Leatherstocking "          series,        the 

(Cooper),  143 
"Leather-wood  God,  The  "  (Howells), 

422 

"Leaves  of  Grass  "  (Whitman),  363 
Lee,  Gerald  Stanley,  131 
"  Legend   of   Sleepy   Hollow,   The " 

(Irving),  129 
"Leon"  (Drake),  176 
"  Letters  from  an  American  Farmer  " 

(Crevecceur),  59 
"  Letter   from    a    Missionary   of   the 

Methodist       Episcopal       Church, 

South,"  etc.  (Whittier),  259 
Lewis,  "  Monk,"  104 
Lewis,  R.,  8 1 
Liberator,  The,  257,  493 
"  Life  on  the   Mississippi "  (Twain), 

382 
"  Life  Amongst  the  Modocs  "  (Miller), 

404 
"Life  of  Washington,  The  "  (Irving), 

118 

"  Lifetime,  A"  (Bryant),  169 
"Ligeia"  (Poe),  185 
"Light"  (Miller).  405 
"  Light  of  Stars,  The  "  (Longfellow), 

270 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  168,  254,  294,310, 

343.  350,  366,  3H  387»4i6 
Lindsay,  Vachel,  453,  474-478 
LippincotPs  Magazine,  493 
"Literary    Importation"'    (Freneau), 

78 

Literary  Magazine  and  American  Reg 
ister,  The,  101 

"  Literati,  The  "  (Poe),  179,  284,  285 
Litteirs  Living  Age,  493 
Locke,  John,  47  ' 
London,  8,  9,  45,  46,  56,  66,  91,  93 


Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth,  179, 
190,  240,  252,  267-281,  293, 348,  349, 
369>  399,  4M>  4i6,  419,  437,  453 

"  Lost  Occasion,  The"  (Whittier),  259 

"  Lovers  of  Louisiana  "  (Cable),  425 

Low,  Samuel,  97 

Lowell,  Amy,  461,  478-482 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  21,  112,  118, 
151,  155,  168,  170,  179,  182,  190, 
211,  213,  252,  262,  267,  277,  282- 
298,  306,  316,  317,  325,  328,  333, 
349,  385,  419 

"  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp,  The " 
(Harte),  381 

"  Lyrics  and  Epics  "  (Aldrich),  331 

Macaulay,  Thomas  B.,  n,  417 

McClure's  Magazine,  494 

"  M'Fingal  "  (Trumbull),  71 

Mac  Kay  e,  Percy,  446-447 

"  Madame  Delphine  "  (Cable),  425 

"  Magnalia       Christi        Americana " 

(Mather),  29,  31,  32,  34 
"  Mahomet    and     his      Successors " 

(Irving),  118 
"  Man   that    Corrupted    Hadleyburg, 

The  "  (Twain),  388 
Map  of  Concord  (Mass.),  223 
Map  of  New  England,  42 
"Marble   Faun,  The"   (Hawthorne), 

241,  242,  245 

"  Marble  Pool,  The  "  (Gilder),  337 
ft  Mark  Twain,  49  (note),  150,  290,  293, 

294,   362,   367,   380-395,    396,  407, 

408,  411,  412,  419,  426,  441 
"  Marshes  of  Glynn,  The  "  (Lanier), 

26>  354,  357-359 

Massachusetts,  5,  8 

"  Massachusetts  to  Virginia  "  (Whit 
tier),  253 

"Mason  and  Slidell :  a  Yankee 
Idyll"  (Lowell),  289 

"  Masque  of  the  Red  Death,  The " 
(Poe),  182 

Masters,  Edgar  Lee,  454,  469-473 

Mather,  Cotton,  28-32,  35,  47,  83, 
129 

Mather  Increase,  28-31,  35,  83,  380 

Medicine,  practice  of,  29,  30 

"  Memories  "  (Whittier),  261 

"  Memory"  (Aldrich),  331 

"  Merlin  "  (Emerson),  213 

Merry  Mount,  8,  242 

Metropolitan  poets,  324-342 


INDEX 


509 


"  Midnight  Consultations,  The  "  (Fre- 

neau),  73 
"  Miles  Standish,  The  Courtship  of  " 

(Longfellow),  273,  276 
Miller,  Joaquin,  367,  401-410,  419 
Milton,  John,  26,  47,  48,  70,  78,  80, 

165,  200,  238,   245,   254,  264,  275, 

415 
"Minister's  Wooing,  The"  (Stowe), 

305 

Mirror,  The  (N.  Y.),  362,  494 
Mirror,  The  (Reedy's,  St.  Louis),  470 
Mitchell,  Weir,  320 
"Modern   Chivalry"  (Brackenridge), 

I03 
"Modern    Instance,    A"    (Howells), 

4i7 

"  Momentous  Words"  (Sill),  401 
Monthly  Magazine  and  American  Re 
view,  The,  101 
Moody,    William    Vaughn,    330,  445, 

446,  457-46i 

"Moral  Bully,  The"  (Holmes),  319 
"Morning"  (Sill),  398 
"  Mortal  Antipathy,  A"  (Holmes)  313 
Morton,  Mrs.  Sarah  Wentworth,  103 
Morton,  Thomas,  8,  9,  21,  32,  83 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  118 
Mowatt,  Anna  C.  O.,  95,  181 
"  Mr.     Britling     sees     it    Through " 

(Wells),  72 

"MS.  Found  in  a  Bottle"  (Poe),  176 
Muir,  John,  229 
"  Murders  in  the  Rue  Morgue,  The  " 

(Poe),  186 
Murray,  John,  118 
Murray,  John,  3d,  403 
Music,  338,  349,  351,  405,  462 
"  Music    Grinders,    The  "   (Holmes), 

3*5 

"My  Aunt"  (Holmes),  315,  320 
"  My  First  Literary  Venture  "  (Twain), 

382 

"  My  Life  Among  the  Indians  "  (Mil 
ler),  404 
"My   Literary  Passions"   (Howells), 

419 

"  My  Own  Story"  (Miller),  404 
"  Myself  and  Mine  "  (Whitman),  367 
"  Mysterious  Illness,  The  "  (Holmes), 

312 
"  Mystery    of    Marie    Roget,    The " 

(Poe),  186 
"  My  Study  Windows  "  (Lowell),  289 


Nation,  The,  494 

National  Advocate,  The,  134 

National  Era,  The,  302 

National  Gazette,  The,  77 

"Nature"  (Emerson),  203 

"  New    English    Canaan "    (Thomas 

Morton),  8,  32 

New  England  Courant,  The,  45,  494 
New  England  Magazine,  The,  239,  317, 

495 

ATew  England  Review,  The,  256 
"  New  England    Tragedies  "    (Long 
fellow),  273,  277 

"New  Politician,  The  "  (Gilder),  338 
New  Repjiblic,  The,  496 
"  New  Roof,  The  "  (Hopkinson),  70 
New  York  City,  45,  50,  89,  91,   100, 
no,   165,    170,   190,  222,  325,  327, 

328,  332>  334,  336,  351.  363>  4i8,  444 
New  York  Evening  Post,  The,  134,  160, 

192,495 
New    York     Review    and    Athenaum 

Magazine,  The,  1 60,  495 
New   York   Tribune,   The,  306  (note), 

332»  495 

"Nigger,  The"  (Sheldon),  94 
"Night  and  Day"  (Lanier),  355 
"Non-Resistance"  (Holmes),  319 
Norris,  Frank,  432 
North  American  Review,  The,  159,  160, 

163,  289,496 
Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  215,  277,  290, 

292 
"  Nux  Postccenatica  "  (Holmes),  312 

"O  Captain!    My   Captain!"   (Whit 
man),  368 
"O    Mother    of     a    Mighty    Race" 

(Bryant),  168,  170 
"Octoroon,  The"  (Boucicault),  94 
"  Ode      in     Time      of      Hesitation " 

(Moody),  330 
Odell,  Jonathan,  73 
"  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs,The  "  (Long 
fellow),  272 

"Old  Creole  Days"  (Cable),  425 
"Old  Ironsides  "  (Holmes),  314,  319 
"Old  Place,  The"  (Gilder),  337 
"Oldtown  Folks"  (Stowe),  306 
"Oliver  Goldsmith"  (Irving),  118 
"On  a  Honey  Bee"  (Freneau),  80 
"Ormond"  (Brown),  105 
"Our  Country's  Call"  (Bryant),  168 
"Our  Old  Home  "(Emerson),  241,417 


510        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


"Out  of  the  Cradle  Endlessly  Rock 
ing"  (Whitman),  369 
Oiitlook,  The,  496 
"Outre-Mer"  (Longfellow),  269,  270, 

417 

Overland  Monthly,  The,  381,  397 
"Over  the  Teacups  "  (Holmes),  318 
Oxford  University,  384 

"Pacific  Poems"  (Miller),  403 
Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  118,  412 
Parker,  Theodore,  195,  196 
"Pathfinder,  The"  (Cooper),  144 
"Pauline  Pavlovna  "  (Aldrich),  330 
Payne,  John  Howard,  91,  97,  98,  437, 

439 

Peabody,  Elizabeth,  313,  314 
Peabody,  Sophia,  240 
"  Pearl  of  Orr's  Island,  The  "  (Stowe), 

306 

Pennsylvania,  45,  46 
Pennsylvania  Freeman,  The,  283 
Pennsylvania  Gazette,  The,  45,  50,  496, 

497 
Periodical  editorship,  45,  72,  73,  77, 

101,  160,   168,   173,   176,  253,   257, 

283*  327,  332,  347,  363. 397,  487-5°! 
Periodicals,   leading    nineteenth-cen 
tury,  487-501 
Perry,  Bliss,  427,  433 
"  Petroleum  V.  Nasby,"  385,  388 
Pfaff's  restaurant,  328,  345 
Philadelphia,  45,  50,  91,  100,  no 
Philadelphia    Saturday    Courier,    The, 

176 

Phillips,  Wendell,  313 
"  Philosophy  of   Composition,  The  " 

(Poe),  180,  186 
"  Physiology  of  Versification,   The  " 

(Holmes),  312 

"  Pictures  of  Columbus"  (Freneau),  76 
Pierce1*  Almanack,  50 
Pierce,  Franklin,  240,  241 
"  Pillared      Arch      and      Sculptured 

Tower"  (Aldrich),  331 
"  Pilot,  The  "  (Cooper),  144 
Pinkney,  William,  65 
"Pioneer,  The"  (Cooper),  143,  152, 

190,  283 

Place-names,  4,  5 
"  Planting  of  the  Apple  Tree,  The  " 

(Bryant),  169 
Plymouth,  5,  7,  8,  42 
"  Pocahontas"  (Custis),  94 


Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  108,  173-189,  242, 

343,  411,481,  482 
"Poems  on   Slavery"    (Longfellow), 

273 
"Poems  of  Two  Friends"  (Howells- 

Piatt),  415 
"  Poet  of  the  Breakfast  Table,  The  " 

(Holmes),  318 

"Poetic  Principal,  The"  (Poe),  180 
Poetry,  497 

"  Poetry"  (Holmes),  315,  316 
"  Poetry,  The  Nature  and  Elements 

of"  (Stedman),  332 
Poetry,  folk,  I 

Poetry  of  the  South,  343-361 
"  Poets  of  America"  (Stedman),  332 
"  Political  Balance,  The  "  (Freneau), 

74,  77 

"  Political  Justice  "  (Godwin),  104 
"  Ponteach  "  (Rogers),    91,  93,  94,  96 
Poor  Richard's   Almanac,  45,   50-52, 

497 

Pope,  Alexander,  47,  48,  78,  102,  163, 
164,  191,  254,  279,  316,  317,  343, 
356,  414,  416 

Popular  poetry,  20-21,  263,  274,  278 
Port  Folio,  The,  497 
"  Power  of  Fancy,  The"  (Freneau),  80 
"Power   of    Sympathy,    The"   (Mor 
ton),  103 

"  Prairie,  The  "  (Cooper),  144,  190 
"Precaution"  (Cooper),  143,  151,  153 
"  Present  Crisis,  The  "  (Lowell),  283 
"  President  Lincoln's  Burial  Hymn  " 

(Whitman),  366 

"  Pretty  Story,  A"  (Hopkinson),  70 
"  Prince  of  Parthia,  The  "  (Godfrey), 

91,  92 

Princeton  College,  72 
Printing  and  authorship,  48,  49,  381 
"  Prisoner's  Thought,  The  "  (Gilder), 

33.8 
"  Private  History  of  a  Campaign  that 

Failed,  The  "  (Twain),  383 
"  Proem  "  (Whittier),  262 
"Progress   of  Balloons,  The"   (Fre 
neau),  77 
"  Progress  of  Dulness,  The  "  (Trum- 

bull),  71,  103 

Progress  in  thought,  7,  128,  166,  167 
"Prophecy,  A"  (Hopkinson),  70 
Providence,  Personal,  6,  46,  47 
Providence  (R.  I.),  5,  42 
"  Psalm  of  Life,  A"  (Longfellow),  270 


INDEX 


Puritans,  4-16,  17-26,  27-40,  41-42, 
82-83,  161,  166,  191,  194,  203,  216, 
228,  237,  245,  277,  299,  305 

Purpose  novel,  the,  108,  247,  303,  427 

Putnam's  Magazine,  497 

"  Quality  of  Mercy,  The  "  (Howells), 
419 

Radcliffe,  Mrs.  Anne,  104 

"Raven,  The"  (Poe),  178,  180,  183, 

185,  186 

"  Rebellion :   its   Cause    and   Conse 
quences,  The  "  (Lowell),  289 
"Red  Rock."  (Page),  348 
"  Reform  "  (Gilder),  338 
"  Remonstrance  "  (Lanier),  355 
Restoration,  the,  27 
"Retirement"  (Freneau),  79 
"  Revenge  of  Hamish,  The"  (Lanier), 

Revolution,  Period  of,  6,  56,  69-88 
"  Richard  Carvel  "  (Churchill),  426 
Richardson,  Samuel,  103,  104,  418 
Richmond  (Va.),  174,  176 
Ripley,  Reverend  George,  196,  311 
"  Rip  van  Winkle  "  (Irving),  127-129, 

306 

"  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham,  The  "  (How- 
ells),  416,  418 
"Rising    Glory   of    America,   The" 

(Freneau),  76 
"  Rival    Suitors   for   America,  The " 

(Freneau),  96 

"Robert  of  Lincoln"  (Whittier),  169 
Robinson,  Edwin  Arlington,  462-466 
Rogers,  Robert,  91,  93,  96 
"  Roughing  It"  (Twain),  383 
Round  Table,  The,  350,  498 
Rowson,  Susanna,  103 
Royalists,  5,  21 
Ruskin,  John,  303 
RtisseWs  Magazine,  345,  498 

Sacramento  Union,  The,  383 

Salem,  5,  28,  34,  42,  236,  237,  238,  239, 
332 

Salmagundi  Papers  (Washington  Irv 
ing  et  al.)»  n6 

Saturday  Club,  The,  267,  332 

Saturday  Evening  Post,  The,  498 

Saturday  Press,  The,y] 

"  Scarlet  Letter,  The  "  (Hawthorne), 
36,  241,  242,  245 


"School  for  Scandal,  The"  (Sheri 
dan),  95 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  108,  118,  279,  405, 

406,  415,  416 
Scribner's  Magazine,  499 
Scribner's  Monthly,  336,  499 
"  Seaweed  "  (Longfellow),  272 
"  Self-Reliance  "  (Emerson),  208 
"  Selling  of  Joseph,  The  "  (Sewall),  34 
Sentimentalism,  126,  162,  163,  345 
"  Septimius     Felton "    (Hawthorne), 

241 

Sewall,  Samuel,  32,  35,  65,  83,  91 
Shakespeare,    William,    48,    92,    164, 
184,  238,  355,  356,  363,  387,  414, 

463,  472 

"  Shaw  Memorial  Ode  "  (Aldrich),  330 

Sheldon,  Edward,  94 

Shelley,  Percy  B.,  108,  175 

Sill,  Edward  Rowland,  396-401 

Simms,  William  Gilmore,  344,  412 

"  Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawam,  The  " 
(Ward),  9-1 1 

Sinclair,  Upton,  432 

«  Singer  in  the  Prison,  The  "  (Whit 
man),  368 

"  Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry 
God"  (Edwards),  42 

"Skeleton  in  Armor,  The"  (Long 
fellow),  271 

"Sketch  Book,  The"  (Irving),  117- 
131,  191,  403 

"Sketches  New  and  Old"  (Twain), 
382 

"  Skipper  Ireson's  Ride  "  (Whittier), 
261 

Slavery,  discussion  of,  34,  65,  73,  167, 

257-259»  273 
Smith,  John,  6 
Smith,  Sidney,  118 
Smollett,  Tobias,  106 
"Snow-Bound"  (Whittier),  261,  263 
"  Society  and    Solitude  "  (Emerson), 

209     '  , 

"  Song  of  the  Banner  at  Daybreak, 

The  "  (Whitman),  366 
"  Song  of  the  Chattahoochee,  The  " 

(Lanier),  355 
"  Song  of  Early  Autumn,  A"  (Gilder), 

339 

"  Song  of  Myself"  (Whitman),  368 
«  Song  of  the  South,  The  "  (Miller), 

404 
"  Songs  of  the  Sierras  "  (Miller),  403 


512        A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


"  Sonnet,  The  "  (Gilder),  339 

"  South  Carolina  to  the  States  of  the 

North"  (Hayne),  348 
Southern  Literary  Messenger,  The,  176, 

177,  1 80,  344,  499 
Southern  Magazine,  The,  500 
"  Specimens  "  (Miller),  403 
Spectator,  The,  47,  49,  116 
"  Spring    in    Massachusetts "    (Tho- 

reau),  230 
"  Spring  in  New  England  "  (Aldrich), 

33° 

"Spy,  The"  (Cooper),  143,  150 
Standish,  Miles,  9 
"  Statesman's  Secret,  The  "  (Holmes), 

3J9 

Stedman,  Edmund  Clarence,  135,  279, 

324,  329.  33I~336>  385>  399>  453 
Steele,  Richard,  71,  116,  343 
"  Stethoscope  Song,  The  "  (Holmes), 

312,  315 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  187,  228 
"Stirrup    Cup,   The"   (Lanier),   355, 

356 

Stoddard,  Richard  Henry,  324,  453 
Stowe,   Harriet    Beecher,    108,    299- 

309,  412,  416,  431 
Stowe,  Reverend  Calvin  E.,  300 
"  Stricken  South  to  the  North,  The  " 

(Hayne),  348 
Structure,  literary,  104,  150, 180,  211, 

213,   248,   249,    274,    294-296,  318, 

320,  356,  368,  369,  386 
"Summer"  (Thoreau),  230 
Sumner,  Charles,  273,  284,  313 
"  Sun-Day  Hymn,  A"  (Holmes),  319 
"  Sundial,  The  "  (Gilder),  337 
Superstition,  29,  30,  31,  129 
Swedenborg,  Emanuel,  209 
Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles,  375 
"  Symphony,  The"  (Lanier),  355,  356 
"  System     of    General    Geography " 

(Brown),  102 

"  Tales  of  a  Traveller"  (Irving),  117 
"Tales  of   a  Wayside  Inn"   (Long 
fellow),  273 
"  Tamerlane  and  Other  Poems  "  (Poe), 

J75 

Tatler,  The,  116 
Taylor,   Bayard,    118,    181,   277,   324, 

35°»  385.  43i 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  260,  274,  275,  333, 
4i6,  453 


"Terrestrial  Paradise,  The,"  271 

Thacher,  Anthony,  6 

Thackeray,  William  Makepeace,  249, 

416,  418,  423 
"  Thanatopsis  "  (Bryant),  22,  26,  161, 

163,  182,  357,  358 
"  Thistledown  "  (Gilder),  337 
Thomas,  Augustus,  439,  440-442,  444 
Thoreau,  Henry  David,  190,  191,  195, 

196,   200,    221-235,   244,   252,  311, 

364 
"  Three  Memorial  Poems  "  (Lowell), 

289 

Ticknor,  George,  314,  346 
Ticknor  and  Fields,  288,  314 
"Tiger  Lilies"  (Lanier),  349,  350 
Timrod,  Henry,  168,  176,  345-347 
"  To  a  Caty-did"  (Freneau),  80 
"To  Canaan"  (Holmes),  319 
"  To  Have  and  to  Hold"  (Johnston), 

426 

"To  Helen"  (Poe),  179,  184,  185 
"  To  Sir  Toby,"  77 
"To  a  Waterfowl"  (Bryant),  162,  182 
Token,  The,  239 
Tolstoi,  Lyof,  217,  419 
"Tom  Sawyer"  (Twain),  382 
"  Tool,  The  "  (Gilder),  338 
Topics  and  Problems,  15,  26,  39,  58, 
67,  68,  87,  88,  99,  109,  139-140,  156, 
157,  172,   189,  219,  234,  250,  266, 
280,  297,  309,  322,  341,  361,  378, 

395'  409 

"Tramp  Abroad,  A"  (Twain),  384 
Transcendentalism,  194,  195 
Transcendentalists,  190-197,  431 
"Traveler  from    Altruria,  A"  (How- 
ells),  419,  420-422 
Trollope,  Anthony,  106,  418 
Trumbull,  John,  71,  72,  85,  103,  in, 

119,  141,  164 

"  Turn  of  the  Balance,  The  "  (Whit- 
lock),  420 
"  Twice-Told    Tales "    (Hawthorne), 

240,  241 
Tyler,  Royall,  91,  94,  103 

"Ulalume"  (Poe),  179,  183,  184,  185 

"Uncle  Remus,  his  Songs  and  Say 
ings  "  (Harris),  425 

"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  (Stowe),  72, 
94,  299,  300-304 

University  of  California,  397 

University  of  Missouri,  384 


INDEX 


513 


University  of  Pennsylvania,  45 
University  of  Virginia,  174,  344 
Untermeyer,  Louis,  462 
"Unwritten   History,   Paquita"  (Mil 
ler),  404 
"Urania"  (Holmes),  315,  316 

"Vale!  America"  (Miller),  403 
"Venetian  Life"  (Howells),  417 
"Verse,  The  Science  of  English" 

(Lanier),  350 

"Victor    and    Vanquished"     (Long 
fellow),  273 
"Victorian     Anthology,     A"    (Sted- 

man),  332 

"Victorian  Poets"  (Stedman),  332 
"Violet,  The"  (Gilder),  337 
Virginia  City  Enterprise,  The,  383 
"Vision  of  Poesy,  A"  (Drake),  176 
"  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,The  "  (Lowell), 

284 
"Voice  of  the  Pine,  The"  (Gilder), 


339 
"Vc 


royager,  The  "  (Gilder),  338 
"Voyages    and    Discoveries    of  the 
Companions    of    Columbus,    The " 
(Irving),  117 

"Waiting,  The  "  (Whittier),  260 

"Walden"  (Thoreau),  224,  232 

"Walden  Pond,"  224-227 

Wallace,  Lew,  108 

Walpole,  Horace,  104 

Ward,  Nathaniel,  9-11,  21,  83,  380 

Ware,  Reverend  Henry,  207 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  384 

Warren,  Mercy,  97 

Washington  (D.  C.),  no 

Washington,  George,  in,  118,  127 

"Way  to  Wealth,  The"  (Franklin),  51 

Webster,  Daniel,  259,  301,  319 

"  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merri- 

mac  Rivers,  A"  (Thoreau),  224 
Wells,  H.  G.,  187 
West  Point  Military  Academy,   174, 

176 


Western  Messenger,  The,  500 

Western  Monthly  Magazine,  The,  300, 
500 

Wharton,  Edith,  428,  429 

"Whisperers,  The"  (Gilder),  338 

White,  Kirke,  161 

Whitlock,  Brand,  118,  420,  432 

Whitman,  Walt,  49  (note),  137,  173, 
232,  279,  295,  328,  334,  339,  340, 
362-379,  405,  407,  408,  414,  419, 

453 
Whittier,    John    Greenleaf,    73,    114, 

130,    168,  170,  190,    252-266,    288, 

302,  304,  319,  331,348,  453 
"Wieland"  (Brown),  104 
Wigglesworth,  Michael,  18-21,  25 
"  Wild  Honeysuckle,  The  "  (Freneau), 

80 

William  and  Mary  College,  89 
"Williams,  Caleb"  (Godwin),  104,105, 

106 

Williams,  Roger,  n,  21,  83,  203 
Willis,  Nathaniel  Parker,  93,  175,  178, 

328 

"Winter"  (Thoreau),  230 
Witchcraft,  28,  29 
Woman,    estimate    of,   ic-n,   23-24, 

95,  148,  433 
"Woman's    Reason,    A"    (Howells), 

417 
"Woman's    Thought,     A"    (Gilder), 

"Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World, 
The"  (Cotton  Mather),  29 

Woolman,  John,  65 

\Vordsworth,  William,  165,  202,  369 

"World  of  Chance,  The"  (Howells), 
419 

"  Wreck  of  Rivermouth,  The  "  (Whit 
tier),  261 

Yale  College,  141,  334,  384,  396,  397, 

398 

Yale  Review,  499 
"Year's  Life,  A"  (Lowell),  283 
"Yellow  Violet,  The"  (Bryant),  162 


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